Art is divine

Italian Renaissance

By Micha Christos

ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS

Londres

9 November 2024 – 16 February 2025

MICHELANGELO - LEONARDO- RAPHAEL

FLORENCE C,1504

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Studies of Male Heads, Helmets for Soldiers and Facial Features, c.1504.

Pen and brown ink and black chalk on paper, 20.5 x 25.3 cm. Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett.

Photo: © Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk. Photography: Christoph Irrgang

Raphael, The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist (‘The Esterhazy Madonna’), c. 1508.

Tempera and oil on panel, 28.5 x 21.5 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Male Nude, c. 1505-06. Black chalk on paper, 40.4 x 22.5 cm. Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Raphael, after Michelangelo Buonarroti, David, c. 1505-08. Pen and brown ink on paper, 39.6 x 21.9 cm. © The Trustees of the British Museum

Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin and Child with St Anne and the Infant St John the Baptist (‘The Burlington House Cartoon’), c.1506-08. C harcoal with white chalk on paper, mounted on canvas, 141.5 x 104.6 cm. The National Gallery, London. Purchased with a special grant and contributions from the Art Fund, The Pilgrim Trust, and through a public appeal organised by the Art Fund, 1962.

This superb exhibition immerses its visitors in the heart of the era of artistic geniuses of the 16th century in Italy. In these high times of the Italian Renaissance, in the feverish atmosphere of Republi can Florence around 1504, the rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci as well as the influence that these two great masters exert on the young Raphael is at its height to attract the greatest and most influential patrons. On January 25, 1504, the most prominent Florentine artists met to discuss the appro priate location for Michelangelo’s David, almost completed. Having just returned to his hometown, Leonardo da Vinci is of course part of this grand jury. T he exhibition presents more than 40 works and opens with Michelangelo’s only marble sculpture in the United Kingdom, the Taddei Tondo, with the preparatory drawings associated with it. T his marvel of grace, all in curves and delicacy in its modeling, represents the Madonna welcoming her Son in her arms fleeing the goldfinch, symbol of his future «Passion» that the Child Saint John holds out to her. T his relief will mark Raphael for life, as evidenced in particular by the Bridgewater Madonna, circa 1507-1508 (loan from the Bridgewater collection, National Galleries of Scotland). The child Jesus in the same fleeing position seeks help in the gaze of his mother who gently rests her half-closed eyes on him. Arranged nearby, the unfinished tempera oil painting on wood of the Esterházy Ma donna, circa 1508 (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest) is inspired by the work of Leo nardo da Vinci, The Virgin, the Child Jesus and Saint Anne in a fluid composition marked by calm and spontaneous familiarity. Raphael haloes Saint John and the future Christ with the famous sfumato dear to Leonardo and the Virgin is of great tenderness.

Leonardo da Vinci, A Rearing Horse, c. 1503-05. Red chalk on paper, 15.3 x 14.2 cm.

The central gallery is dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci’s Burlington House Cartoon, circa 1506-1508 (National Gallery, London), which will return to the Royal Academy for the first time in over 60 years. Between 1500 and 1501, the drawing evokes the moment when Jesus summons his mother to accept his Future Passion, helped in this by his grandmother who also symbolizes the Church. T he exhibition will culminate with drawings highlighting the mythical meeting between Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. In 1503, to celebrate the liberation of Florence, its government had commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint a monumental fresco, the Battle of Anghiari, in its newly built council chamber.In late August or early September 1504, around the time that Michelangelo’s David was installed on the ringhiera in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, Michelangelo was commissioned to paint the accompanying Battle of Cascina.Neither project was ever completed, but the exhibition will bring together the much-admired preparatory drawings of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo from collections across Europe, including a large group loaned by His Majesty the King from the Royal Collection, providing a fascinating insight into the approach of both artists to their compositions. It is Raphael who concludes this marvellous journey with a drawing from 1505 1506, in which he meticulously copies the central scene of Leonardo da Vinci’s Battle of Anghiari.

A journey through time to the rhythm

of timeless masterpieces of rare and disturbing beauty…

Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John (The ‘Taddei Tondo’), c. 1504-05. Marble, 106.8 x 106.8 cm. Royal Academy of Arts, London. Bequeathed by Sir George Beaumont, 1830. Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London, Photographer: Prudence Cuming Associates Limited

Bastiano da Sangallo, after Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Battle of Cascina (‘The Bathers’), c. 1542. Oil on panel, 78.8 x 132.3 cm.

Holkham Hall, Norfolk, Collection of the Earl of Leicester. By kind permission of the Earl of Leicester and the Trustees of Holkham Estate