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1500-1508
The return to Florence
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The cartoon for the St Anne
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Leonardo da Vinci
Madonna and Child with St Anne and the Young St John
1507-08
Charcoal with white chalk heightening on paper
National Gallery, London |
Probably dating from earlier than 1507, the cartoon in the
British Museum, London, represents the meeting of Jesus and John in
the desert. It was exhibited in Florence to an acclaim almost
comparable to that of a completed work.
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Leonardo da Vinci
Madonna and Child with St Anne and the Young St John (detail)
1507-08
Charcoal with white chalk heightening on paper
National Gallery, London
The Child pushes away from the arms of his mother and leans towards St
John to bless him;
the gesture with the diagonally outstretched arm follows the transverse
path of the other figures and anticipates the Baptism.
The poses and gestures of the figures are linked reciprocally in a fluid
and harmonious compositional rhythm. |
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Leonardo da Vinci,
Study for St Anne, the Madonna and Child, and
the Lamb, c.1501,
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice.
One of the fundamental pieces of advice that
Leonardo gave to artists was that "fashioning the
parts should not be too finished".
He believed firmly that the preliminary sketch
should be a means of stimulating the mind to new
forms of invention and that these preparatory
exercises should be considered original creations.
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Raphael, Belvedere Madonna, 1506,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
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Raphael, Canigiani Holy Family, 1507,
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
In this, and in the Belvedere Madonna,
Raphael collated and developed Leonardo's notion of
the pyramidal group arranged in a spiral pattern.
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 Leonardo da Vinci
Study of St Anne, Mary and the Christ Child
1503-10
Charcoal, pen and ink on paper
Musee du Louvre, Paris |
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 Leonardo da Vinci
Study of a child
c. 1508
Chalk on paper
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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 Leonardo da Vinci
Head of a woman
c. 1508
Chalk on paper
Royal Library, Windsor
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 Leonardo da Vinci
Study for Madonna and Child with St Anne
1503-17
Black chalk, wash and white highlights on paper
Musee du Louvre, Paris |
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