Two works by Leonardo da Vinci left their usual places in the Hermitage due to the large number of visitors, the press service of the Hermitage reported. Museum workers said that now the paintings are located in new showcases, created according to the project of the employees of the exhibition and design department. They provide humidity and air temperature, to which “the paintings have become accustomed to over the past 40 years”, as well as a special internal lighting system.
It is believed that about 15 paintings by Leonardo da Vinci have survived (in addition to frescoes and drawings). Five of them are kept in the Louvre, one each in the Uffizi (Florence), the Alte Pinakothek (Munich), the Czartoryski Museum (Krakow), the London and Washington National Galleries, as well as other lesser-known museums. However, some scholars argue that there are actually more paintings, but disputes over the attribution of Leonardo's works are an endless occupation. In any case, Russia holds a solid second place after France.
Da Vinci's paintings in the Hermitage: "Madonna Litta" was included in the collection of the Hermitage in 1865, and "Madonna Benois" - in 1914
There are so many paintings depicting the Virgin Mary that it is customary to give the most famous nicknames. Often the name of one of the previous owners sticks to them, as happened with Madonna Litta. The painting, painted in the 1490s, remained in Italy for many centuries. Since 1813, it was owned by the Milanese Litta family, whose representatives were well aware of the wealth of Russia. It was from this family that the Maltese knight Count Giulio Renato Litta came, who was in great favor with Paul I and, leaving the order, married Potemkin's niece, becoming a millionaire. A quarter of a century after his death, Duke Antonio Litta turned to the Hermitage with an offer to buy several paintings from the family collection.
"Madonna Benois" also received a nickname in honor of its owner. Moreover, it could well be called "Sapozhnikov's Madonna", but "Benois", of course, sounds more beautiful. The Hermitage acquired it from the wife of the architect Leonty Nikolaevich Benois (brother of the famous Alexander), Maria Alexandrovna Benois. She was born Sapozhnikova.
The decision to move the works was made by the General Director of the Hermitage in 2017.
The Leonardo Hall is absolutely impossible for the movement of the crowd, they collide there all the time. Therefore, in the new showcases, we will deploy the paintings against the wall so that they are frontally facing the viewer, - commented on the movement of Da Vinci's paintings, Director of the Hermitage Museum Mikhail Piotrovsky.
Da Vinci paintings in the Hermitage: The Hermitage has several paintings by the genius of the Renaissance
The Hermitage collection, which dates back to the Italian period of the 15th-16th centuries, is priceless in every sense of the word. The pearl of the entire exhibition is a collection of paintings by one of the most famous artists, inventors of all times and peoples, Leonardo da Vinci. The genius of this man is not even disputed. Leonardo da Vinci was talented in everything and everything he did was one step ahead of the very time in which he lived. For this reason, his art is extraordinary and exciting.
One of the largest and most significant art and cultural-historical museums in Russia and the world presents several paintings of the genius of the Renaissance: Madonna with a flower (Madonna Benois), Madonna Litta, Nude woman.
“Madonna and Child” (Madonna Lita) refers to the Milan period of Leonardo da Vinci’s work, and she received the name Litta by the name of the Milanese dukes Litta, from whose collection the painting was acquired. This is the most famous painting in the Hermitage. The artist created the image of an ideally beautiful woman and placed her in a world full of harmony. The Madonna feeding the baby appears as the personification of maternal love as the greatest human value.
The mother breastfeeds the child, fixing him with a thoughtful tender look; the child, full of health and unconscious energy, moves in the arms of the mother, spins, moves with his legs. He looks like his mother: the same swarthy, with the same golden color of the stripes. She admires him, immersed in her thoughts, focusing on the child all the power of her feelings. Even a cursory glance captures precisely this fullness of feelings and concentration of mood in Madonna Litta. But if we are aware of how Leonardo achieves this expressiveness, then we will be convinced that the artist of the mature stage of the Renaissance uses a very generalized, very laconic way of depicting. The face of the Madonna is turned to the viewer in profile; we see only one eye, even its pupil is not drawn; the lips cannot be called smiling, only the shadow in the corner of the mouth seems to hint at a smile ready to appear, and at the same time, the very tilt of the head, the shadows sliding over the face, the guessing look create that impression of spirituality that Leonardo loved and knew how to evoke.
Included in the "major league" of the world's museum treasures. There are three million exhibits in its collection, and the magnificent collection, begun by Catherine the Great, is replenished to this day. We offer a short tour of the Hermitage - and 10 must-see paintings.
Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna and Child (Madonna Benois)
Italy, 1478-1480
The second name comes from the names of the owners of the painting. Under what circumstances the work of the great Leonardo came to Russia is still unknown. There is a legend that the Benois family bought it from a traveling circus. The masterpiece went to Maria Sapozhnikova (after marriage - Benois) as an inheritance from her father. In 1914, the Hermitage acquired this painting from her. True, after the revolution, in the difficult 1920-30s, the government of the USSR almost sold it to the US Secretary of the Treasury, a passionate collector Andrew Mellon. Art historians who opposed this sale were lucky: the deal fell through.
Raphael. Madonna and Child (Madonna Conestabile)
Italy, around 1504
"Madonna and Child" - one of the early works of Raphael. Alexander II purchased this painting in Italy from Count Conestabile for his beloved wife Maria Alexandrovna. In 1870, this gift cost the emperor 310,000 francs. The sale of Raphael's work outraged the local community, but the Italian government did not have the funds to buy the painting from the owner. The property of the Empress was immediately exhibited in the Hermitage building.
Titian. Danae
Italy, circa 1554
The painting by Titian Catherine II acquired in 1772. The painting is based on a myth in which King Acrisius was predicted that he would die at the hands of his own grandson, and in order to avoid this, he imprisoned his daughter Danae. However, the resourceful god Zeus nevertheless penetrated to her in the form of a golden torrential rain, after which Danae gave birth to a son, Perseus.
Catherine II was an enlightened monarch, had excellent taste and perfectly understood what exactly needed to be acquired for her collection. There are several more paintings in the Hermitage with a similar plot. For example, "Danae" Verwilt and "Danae" Rembrandt.
El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos). Apostles Peter and Paul
Spain, between 1587–1592
The painting was donated to the museum in 1911 by Pyotr Durnovo. A few years earlier, Durnovo had shown it at an exhibition of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of Arts. Then they talked about El Greco, who was considered a very mediocre artist, as a genius. In this canvas, the painter, who was always far from European academicism, turned out to be especially close to the Byzantine icon painting tradition. He tried to convey the spiritual world and the characters of the apostles. Paul (in red) is assertive, resolute and self-confident, while Peter, on the contrary, is doubtful and hesitant ... It is believed that El Greco captured himself in the image of Paul. But researchers are still arguing about this.
Caravaggio. Youth with a lute
Italy, 1595-1596
Caravaggio is a famous master of the Baroque, who turned the minds of several generations of European artists with his "cellar" light. Only one of his works is kept in Russia, which the artist painted in his youth. A certain drama is characteristic of Caravaggio's paintings, and there is it in The Lute Player. In the music book depicted on the table, the popular melody of the madrigal Yakov Arkadelt “You know that I love you” is recorded at that time. And the cracked lute in the hands of a young man is a symbol of unhappy love. The canvas was purchased by Alexander I in 1808.
Peter Paul Rubens. Portrait of the Maid Infanta Isabella
Flanders, mid 1620s
Despite the name, it is believed that this is a portrait of the artist's daughter, Clara Serena, who died at the age of 12. The picture was created after the death of the girl. The artist subtly wrote out both fluffy hair, and delicate skin of the face, and a thoughtful look, from which it is impossible to look away. A spiritual and poetic image appears before the viewer.
Catherine II purchased the painting for the Hermitage collection in 1772.
Rembrandt van Rijn. Return of the prodigal son
Holland, circa 1668
Catherine II bought one of the most famous and recognizable paintings by Rembrandt in 1766. The gospel parable of the prodigal son worried the artist throughout his life: he created the first drawings and etchings on this subject back in the 1630s and 40s, and took up painting in the 1660s. Rembrandt's canvas has become an inspiration for other creative personalities. The avant-garde composer Benjamin Britten wrote an opera inspired by this work. And director Andrei Tarkovsky quoted The Return of the Prodigal Son in one of the final scenes of Solaris.
Edgar Degas. Place de la Concorde (Viscount Lepic with his daughters crossing Place de la Concorde)
France, 1875
The painting "Concord Square" was transported to Russia after the Second World War from Berlin - there it was kept in a private collection. The canvas is interesting in that, on the one hand, it is a portrait, and on the other, a genre sketch typical of the Impressionists from the life of the city. Degas portrayed his close friend, the aristocrat Ludovic Lepic, along with his two daughters. The multi-figure portrait still holds many mysteries. It is not known when and under what circumstances the painting was created. Art historians suggest that the work was painted in 1876 and not to order. The artist did not write another similar picture either before or after. Needing money, he nevertheless sold the canvas to Count Lepic, and until the end of the 19th century they did not know about him. After the fall of Berlin in 1945, the masterpiece, among other "trophy" works, was sent to the Soviet Union and ended up in the Hermitage.
Henri Matisse. Dance
France, 1909–1910
The painting was commissioned by Sergei Shchukin, a well-known Russian collector of French paintings of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The composition is written on the theme of the golden age of mankind, and therefore it depicts not specific people, but symbolic images. Matisse was inspired by folk dances, which, as you know, keep the rituality of a pagan action. The fury of the ancient bacchanalia Matisse embodied in a combination of pure colors - red, blue and green. As symbols of Man, Heaven and Earth. The painting was transferred to the Hermitage from the Moscow collection of the State Museum of New Western Art in 1948.
Wassily Kandinsky. Composition VI
Germany, 1913
The Hermitage has a whole hall dedicated to the work of Wassily Kandinsky. "Composition VI" was created in Munich in May 1913 - a year before the start of the First World War. The dynamic bright picture is painted with free and sweeping strokes. Initially, Kandinsky wanted to call it "The Flood": the abstract canvas was based on a biblical story. However, later the artist abandoned this idea so that the title of the work would not interfere with the viewer's perception. The canvas came to the museum from the State Museum of New Western Art in 1948.
The material used illustrations from the official website
It is difficult to overestimate the importance of a multifaceted functionary, a comprehensive genius of the Renaissance - an artist, thinker, scientist, inventor. In the person of Leonardo da Vinci, the courageous and cherished desires of his contemporaries, the people of the Renaissance, the era of the greatest modern upheaval, were embodied. Persistently and tirelessly, Leonardo strives to master and absolutely understand the real, earthly world - the magnificent world that is around man; to overtake the pattern in the life of nature, to catch the shades of light and colors of things and air; to master the mechanics of the movement and existence of the human body - the most beautiful creation of nature; in the end, look into the soul, into the inner world of a person and understand this inner world inextricably linked with material life, notice the gestures and glances that reveal the spiritual movements of a person.
Very few paintings by Leonardo da Vinci have survived to this day, and of these, those kept in the Hermitage make up a significant proportion of its artistic heritage.
In the 214th hall of the Hermitage, two small paintings are exhibited. It is produced by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) the Benois Madonna and the Litta Madonna. Both are written on the same subject: Madonna and Child. No more Leonardo's paintings on this subject have been preserved.
"Madonna with a Flower" is one of the first works of the young Leonardo. This is not a big picture of an unpresentable chamber project. The designer takes on a theme that has been developed a lot by his predecessors and contemporaries. They already saw in the image of the Madonna not the personification of heavenly forces, but the poetic embodiment of femininity and motherhood. Although the designers of the XV century. something else was not said in their own works, their Madonnas seemed constrained in their movements and feelings, they kept in their own form the remnants of conventionality. The picture was painted on a board, and later, having entered the Hermitage, it was transferred to canvas.
In his work on the Benois Madonna, Leonardo used an oil painting technique that almost no one in Florence had known before. And although the colors have inevitably changed over the five centuries, becoming less bright, it is still clearly noticeable that the young Leonardo abandoned the variegation of colors traditional for Florence. Instead, he makes extensive use of the possibilities of oil paints in order to more accurately convey the texture of materials and the nuances of light and shade. The bluish-green gamut replaced the red light in which the Madonna was usually dressed from the picture. At the same time, an ocher color was chosen for the sleeves and cloak, harmonizing the ratio of cold and warm shades.
The second painting by Leonardo da Vinci, kept in the Hermitage - "Madonna Litta" - was completed a few years later. This time the designer chose the most severe form of the Madonna's face, withstood the picture in a different color range, including turning again to the tempera technique, introducing into it, however, a number of fresh methods (Leonardo tirelessly carried out various experiments) Although the main content, the ideological content the work is the same as before: the same humanity, the same love for the real, living feelings of people pervades the entire work.
Some art critics pay attention to the elements of the picture, unusual for the author's manner of Leonardo, in particular, to the unnatural pose of the baby. It is assumed that at least the figure of the baby belongs to the brush of one of Leonardo's students, most likely Boltraffio.
The work was written for the rulers of Milan, then passed to the Litta family, and for several centuries was in their private collection. The original title of the painting is Madonna and Child. The modern name of the painting comes from the name of its owner - Count Litta, the owner of a family art gallery in Milan. In 1864, he approached the Hermitage with an offer to buy it, along with several other paintings. In 1865, along with three other paintings. Madonna Litta was purchased by the Hermitage for 100,000 francs.
Interesting facts: - Leonardo's sketch of Madonna's head while preparing the painting is now kept in the Louvre; - Pavel Kogan and Sergei Solovyov in 1966 shot a documentary film “Look at the face” with a hidden camera - about visitors to the Hermitage looking at Madonna Litta; - the picture is present in one of the frames of the 2006 film The Da Vinci Code; - the picture was used in the design of the album "Creature" by the musician Dolphin.
In both paintings, Da Vinci places the Madonna and Child in a semi-dark room, where the only source of light is a double window located at the back. Its greenish light cannot dispel the semi-darkness, but at the same time it is sufficient to highlight the figure of the Madonna and the young Christ. The main "work" is done by the light pouring from the top left. Thanks to him, the master manages to revive the picture with the play of chiaroscuro and sculpt the volume of two figures.
It is likely that both paintings were the first works of Leonardo as an independent painter. At that time he was only 26 years old and already six years old, as he left the studio of his teacher Andrea Verrocchio. He already had his own style, but, of course, he relied heavily on the experience of the Florentines of the 15th century. There is also no doubt that Leonardo knew about the painting "Madonna and Child", performed by his teacher in 1466-1470. As a result, for both paintings, both the three-quarter turn of the bodies and the similarity of images are common features: the youth of both Madonnas and the large heads of the Babies.
Two small paintings are exhibited in Hall 214 of the Hermitage. These are the works of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this multifaceted figure, the all-encompassing genius of the Renaissance - an artist, thinker, scientist, inventor. In the face of Leonardo da Vinci, the most daring and most cherished aspirations of his contemporaries, the people of the Renaissance, the era of the greatest progressive upheaval, were embodied. Persistently and tirelessly seeks Leonardo to study and accurately understand the real, earthly world - the beautiful world that surrounds man; to comprehend the pattern in the life of nature, to catch the shades of light and the colors of objects and air; to master the mechanics of the movement and existence of the human body - the most beautiful creation of nature; finally, look into the soul, into the inner world of a person and understand this inner world inextricably linked with material life, notice the gestures and glances that reveal the spiritual movements of a person.
Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 in the small town of Vinci. From the age of 14 he lived and studied in Florence, whose multifaceted cultural life helped develop his scientific and artistic inclinations. The period between 1482 and 1499 Leonardo da Vinci spent in Milan, working as a scientist, inventor, sculptor and painter. At this time, his impact on contemporary Italian art becomes very significant. At the end of his life, Leonardo went to France, where he took his favorite works with him.
Very few paintings by Leonardo da Vinci have survived to this day, and two of them, kept in the Hermitage, make up a significant part of his artistic heritage. Both are written on the same subject: Madonna and Child. More paintings by Leonardo on this subject have not been preserved.
The young Leonardo da Vinci first of all breaks this barrier. He chooses for his Madonna a simple face, not sparkling with beauty, emphatically young, laughing merrily; firmly sculpts a figure that stands out clearly against the background of the twilight of the room, and makes the folds of clothing outline the structure of the body. At the same time, freeing himself from the usual stiffness of old paintings on this topic, Leonardo gives the "Madonna with a Flower" the character of a genre scene. The young mother holds out a flower to the child, he anxiously reaches for it with his hands, but cannot immediately grab it, and she laughs at his awkward movements, at the same time admiring the charm of her son. Achieving the impression of life reality, Leonardo carefully develops the transfer of relief, volumetric figures. He notes many gradations of lighting: penumbra, a deep but transparent shadow, and where the veil of shadow thickens most of all - on the cheek, on the child's hand - he interrupts it with a light strip of reflex, reflection. The light also plays on the silk lapel of the cloak, on the brooch that adorns the mother's dress; in the span of the window, the transparent sky creates the impression of an infinite distance.
In this early work, Leonardo da Vinci already uses a painting technique that was new for that time: the picture was painted using oil paints, which make it possible to achieve greater transparency and a greater variety of texture than tempera.
The mother breastfeeds the child, fixing him with a thoughtful tender look; the child, full of health and unconscious energy, moves in the arms of the mother, spins, moves with his legs. He looks like his mother: the same swarthy, with the same golden color of the stripes. She admires him, immersed in her thoughts, focusing on the child all the power of her feelings. Even a cursory glance captures precisely this fullness of feelings and concentration of mood in Madonna Litta. But if we are aware of how Leonardo achieves this expressiveness, then we will be convinced that the artist of the mature stage of the Renaissance uses a very generalized, very laconic way of depicting. The face of the Madonna is turned to the viewer in profile; we see only one eye, even its pupil is not drawn; the lips cannot be called smiling, only the shadow in the corner of the mouth seems to hint at a smile ready to appear, and at the same time, the very tilt of the head, the shadows sliding over the face, the guessing look create that impression of spirituality that Leonardo loved and knew how to evoke.
Completing the stage of a long search in the art of the Renaissance, the artist, on the basis of a confident and accurate embodiment of the visible, creates a poetic image in which the random and petty are discarded, and those features are selected that help create an exciting and sublime idea of a person. Leonardo da Vinci, as it were, brings together the disparate efforts of his contemporaries and, in many ways ahead of them, raises Italian art to a new level.
Berezina V.N., Livshits N.A. Art of Western Europe XII-XX centuries., From the State. Hermitage., L. 1963
In the 214th hall of the Hermitage, two small paintings are exhibited - these are the works of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).
It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this multifaceted figure, the all-encompassing genius of the Renaissance - an artist, thinker, scientist, inventor. The most daring and most cherished aspirations of his contemporaries, the people of the Renaissance, the era of the greatest progressive upheaval, were embodied in the face of Leonardo da Vinci.
