Page 111 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

legacy of notes, including numerous memo- 4. Burckhardt 1960, 171-172.
randa about his daily life, he never willingly 5. J.R.S. Phillips, The Medieval Expansion of Europe
dropped the mask of objective recording and 6. (Oxford, 1988). the Creation of a Renaissance
C.
R.
Mack, Pienza f
analysis, and such personal insights as do City (Ithaca, N.Y., 1987).
emerge either arise inadvertently or must be 7. Leon Battista Alberti, Momo o del principe, ed.
discerned beneath the surface. Leonardo R. Consolo (Genoa, 1985), 234-235.
recorded even his father's death dispassionately, 8. Kemp 1991.
in a dry memorandum, whereas Diirer wrote 9. D. Friedman, Florentine New Towns: Urban Design
in the Late Middle Ages
(Cambridge, Mass.,
1988).
movingly about the illness and death of both his 10. Friedman 1988, 341.
77
father and mother. Not surprisingly, it is 11. J. White, The Birth and Rebirth of Pictorial Space,
Diirer who left behind a great series of drawn zd ed. (London, 1967), 113-121; S. Y. Edgerton, Jr.,
and painted self-portraits, which reflect the The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective
astonishing range of his physical, social, and (New York, 1975), 143-145; Martin Kemp, The Sci-
of Art: Optical
ence
from
Western Art
Themes in
mental attributes. Although a degree of self- Brunelleschi to Seurat (New Haven, 1990), 11-15,
characterization has been discerned behind 344-345-
some of Leonardo's portrayals of bearded 12. I. Hyman, "Notes and Speculations on San Lorenzo,
"seers," direct self-portraiture as such appears to Palazzo Medici, and an Urban Project by Brunelles-
have been of little interest to him. Even the chi/' Journal of the Society of Architectural Histo-
rians 34
(1975),
98—119.
famous red chalk drawing in Turin, generally 13. Leonardo Bruni, Laudatio Florentinae urbis, trans.
taken to be Leonardo's only authentic self-por- B. Kohl, in The Earthly Republic: Italian Humanists
trait, is probably an idealized type and not a on Government and Society, ed. B. Kohl and R. G.
78
fig. 31. Albrecht Diirer, Self-Portrait. 1500, oil on direct representation of Leonardo himself. It is Witt (Manchester, 1978), 141. See also H. Baron,
panel. Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen-Alte difficult to imagine Leonardo painting the The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance, zd ed.
1966),
199-211.
(Princeton,
Pinakothek, Munich equivalent of Diirer's astonishing self-image of 14. Leon Battista Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten
1500 in Munich, in which the theological Books, trans. J. Rykwert, N. Leach, and R. Tavernor
a general concept and in individual cases. In his injunction to "imitate Christ" is translated into (Cambridge, Mass., 1988), 92.
view, a slight sketch, "roughly and rudely the specific terms of the artist who is inwardly 15. Alberti 1988, 121.
done/' by a "powerful artist" will have its own full of divine ideas. 16. Alberti 1988, 126.
special value: "A man may often draw some- Thus, for all their apparent affinities in estab- 17. Alberti 1988, 191.
18.
For Filarete (Antonio Averlino), see J. R. Spencer,
thing with his pen on a half-sheet of paper in lishing the most ambitious conception of the ed. and trans., Filarete's Treatise on Architecture
one day or engrave it with his tool on a small artist as a man of universal "understanding," for (New Haven, 1965), and the edition by A. M. Finoli
block of wood, and it shall be fuller of art and all their shared concerns as theorists, and for all and L. Grassi (Milan, 1972); for Francesco di
better than another's great work on which he the common motifs in their art, the ultimate Giorgio, see Trattati di architectura civile e militare,
73
has spent a whole year's careful labor." He targets of the two masters were distinctly dif- ed. C. Maltese and L. Maltese Degrassi, 2 vols.
1967).
(Milan,
refers to this, earlier in the same passage, as the ferent. Leonardo was interested in extending 19. M.G.C.D. Dal Poggetto, "La 'Citta ideale' di
ability of the artist "to make himself seen in his absolute understanding into every corner of the Urbino," in Urbino e le Marche prima e dopo Raf-
work." This concern explains Diirer's wish to created world outside himself, searching for the faello [exh. cat., Galleria Nazionale delle Marche]
acquire examples of the "hand" of other mas- laws of form and function that would bring (Urbino, 1983), 71-78; and Mack 1987.
ters. Having obtained a drawing by Raphael, he nature's apparent diversity within the embrace 20. P. Marconi, ed., La Citta come forma simbolica,
Biblioteca di storia dell'arte 7 (n.p., n.d.); E. Garin,
added an inscription that was clearly addressed of common causes. Diirer's great concern was to "La Cite ideale de la Renaissance italienne," and R.
to posterity: "Raffahell de Urbin who is so act as a visual spokesman for God's multitudi- Klein, "L'Urbanisme utopique de Filarete a Valentin
highly esteemed by the Pope made these naked nous signs in nature, and he exploited his full Andreae," in Les Utopies a la Renaissance (Brussels,
figures and sent this to Albrecht Diirer in measure of acquired learning and highly per- 1963), 11-37, 209-230; and L. Gambi, "La Citta da
Nuremberg in order to show him his hand." 74 sonal insight toward this divine end. In their imagine simbolica e proiezione urbanistica," Storia
f
d Italia:
Atalante 6 (1976), 217-228.
The scope Diirer allowed to individuality was respective discoveries of man as an integral part
M. Dalai Emiliani, "Figure rinascimentali dei polie-
part of his highly developed sense of his own of nature's awesome system of cause and effect 21. dri Platonici: Qualche problema di storia e di auto-
individual presence and his relationship to and of men as the individual conduits for the grafia," in Fra Rinascimento, manierismo e realta,
others. In his diaries, notebooks, drawings, and perception of God's creation, Leonardo and ed. P. Marani (Florence, 1984); and Martin Kemp,
watercolors, he intentionally provided a greater Diirer embody the two Renaissance conceptions "Geometrical Bodies as Exemplary Forms in Renais-
personal insight into his life (both circumstan- of art that were to dominate future generations sance Space/' in World Art: Themes of Unity in
tial and emotional) than survives for any other of creators over at least the next four centuries. Diversity, Acts of the 26th International Congress of
I. Lavin, 3 vols. (London,
of Art, ed.
the History
artist of his time, although he seems to have 1989), 1:237-242.
resisted any detailed characterization of his NOTES 22. R. Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of
relationship with his wife, whom we largely 1. I Libri della famiglia, trans. R. N. Watkins, The Humanism, 3d ed. (London, 1962), 14-15, pis. 2-3.
know through the ungenerous assessment of family in Renaissance Florence (Columbia, S.C., 23. Luca Pacioli, De divina proportione (Florence, 1509).
75
Pirckheimer. The autobiography preserved in 1969). i33-*34- For Pacioli, see P. L. Rose, The Italian Renaissance
143-144.
(Geneva, 1975),
his art even extends to a drawing of himself in 2. Martin Kemp, ed., Leon Battista Alberti on Paint- 24. of Mathematics Urbino Studiolo (Wiesbaden, 1986).
C. Grayson (Harmondsworth, 1991), 53.
L. Cheles, The
ing, trans.
the nude to record a malady: "The yellow spot 3. Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renais- For Federigo and mathematics at Urbino, see Rose
which I point out with my finger is the place sance in Italy, trans. S. Middlemore (London, *975/ 54-55-
76
where it hurts." Although Leonardo left a vast 1960), 81. 25. Martin Kemp, "The Taking and Use of Evidence;
HO CIRCA 1492