The advantages of our rock goddess
The Madonna of the Rock has a general theme, and the Madonna is painted around the prophets according to the wishes of the church. This is a general religious composition method used by the promoters of St. Relief Society to enhance the innocent belief of the Madonna. Leonardo da Vinci's creation is a secular work that is quietly emerging in Florence. Everything on the screen reflects new ideas: artistic treatment of the plot; Unusual and elusive scenery; The organic combination of characters and environment; Clever use of light; The characters reflected in the beauty of nobility. The theme of this painting is that little John the Baptist pays tribute to Christ in front of the Virgin Mary and angels. Leonardo da vinci placed them in beautiful and mysterious rock scenery. The virgin Mary, children and angels sit directly on the rock floor. The light smoke and mist, which gradually becomes thicker and thinner, presents a hazy painting meaning, which is rare in Flanders or Venetian painting school. The whole scene is like a distant dream. Full of poetic warmth, peace and elegance.
Picture background design
Although the characters in the painting are surrounded by a damp air, the outline of the human body can still be clearly distinguished against the dim rocks, especially the face painted by the painter is shrouded in a mysterious atmosphere deliberately created, and the gentle, gentle and naive expressions of the characters are vividly highlighted. Strange hanging stones hang down from the wet rock mass, and botanically accurate flowers and plants pass through the cracks in the rock, so iris, anemone, violet and some ferns can be distinguished. In the distance, the blue sky appears in front of people through holes and gaps between rocks. The young mother held the kneeling baby John in her tender hand, and his other hand reached out to her son. The angel faces the audience, leads them to the painting and signals the scene with his hands. A series of gestures represent protection, instruction, blessing and other meanings. This group of tasks is arranged according to the composition principle of the pyramid. At the top of the tower is the head of the Virgin Mary, with his outstretched hands on the side and angels and babies on the bottom corner. Leonardo regarded structure as the key to open the intention of his works, which largely formed the classic pyramid-like character composition in the heyday of the Renaissance.
A harmonious picture
On Leonardo da Vinci's stable and harmonious picture, the scenery is no longer a simple background, but realistic scenery surrounds the characters and blends naturally with them, giving the picture a unique vividness. At that time, the production of group portraits followed two general principles: first, there should be some communication between the characters in the painting; Secondly, there should be some communication between the viewer and the painter. The Louvre series has both, while the London series has only one.
Artistic feature
Pyramid composition
In the first picture, Leonardo da Vinci used a pyramid-shaped composition, which has a sense of stability. The four roles are unified in this stable structure. The spire is just the head of the Virgin Mary, and Jesus' left hand and angel's skirt are the edges of the right contour of the tower, but this tower composition is not a very rigid symmetrical formula. The Virgin Mary of the central figure still leans slightly to the left, while the lower part of the tower composition is close to the prism. John's head is slightly lower than the head of the opposite angel, and the two corners are unbalanced. Because the light of the background hole is strengthened, their color contrast is relatively stable. Panorama is solemn and natural, with the modeling characteristics of classical beauty.
rock structure
Also pay attention to the background description of this painting: Leonardo da Vinci is not only an outstanding landscape painter, but more importantly, he pays great attention to the rock structure in this cave from the perspective of an explorer. Stalactites in caves are the object of geological exploration by scientific researchers in the Renaissance. This further reflects Leonardo da Vinci's extensive interest in geological strata. On all the murals in Italy in the15th century, ordinary people are always placed in front of the landscape, not the landscape. For the first time, Leonardo da Vinci put the characters in the middle of a specific landscape, so that the characters' situation was integrated with the dark ancient caves, which was an original creation for the great painter to seek typical environment and typical personality in his conception. In terms of color, the whole painting is based on Tan, and the dark blue of the Virgin contrasts with the purple, gold and silver gray on the angel cloak. The skin of Jesus and John contrasts with John's blond curly hair. The dark cave enables leonardo da vinci to display his best contrast between light and shade. "
Hints and symbols
Madonna of the Rock is full of hints and symbols, showing Leonardo da Vinci's mysterious mind. What does it mean to point at St. John with an obvious gesture? Does St. John, who is protected by the virgin Mary, mean that human beings need the protection of the holy spirit? Does the cave depicted as a uterus suggest the origin of life? Scholars have a heated discussion on these issues. However, Leonardo himself, like all great painters, never explained the meaning of his works. He believes that the audience will definitely feel the implication. Obviously, Leonardo da Vinci incorporated his past learning experience into this work. Chapter 32 of The Da Vinci Code reads: "This painting goes against common sense. It shows that John prayed for Jesus instead of Jesus praying for John ... Jesus obeyed John's authority! What's more, Maria in the painting puts a hand on John's head and makes a threatening gesture-her fingers look like eagle claws, as if holding an invisible head. The most obvious and creepy picture is that Maria bends the URI—— under her finger-he makes a gesture of chopping things, as if to cut off the invisible head that Maria grabbed from her neck. " It is enough to see that the meaning and symbol of this painting is not simple.
aerial perspective
The scenery outside the cave is aerial perspective, and many people form a pyramid structure, with the head of the Virgin Mary at the top. Angels' faces express Leonardo da Vinci's ideal beauty, and their facial features are not displayed on the outside like the angels in "The Baptism of Christ" he painted for Veroqiu, but scattered from the heart. The characters are portrayed in light and shade, and the technique has reached a superb level. This shows that Leonardo da Vinci has bid farewell to the early Renaissance and started to move towards the peak of the Renaissance.
colour
In the second painting, the whole painting is based on Tan, and the dark blue of the Virgin contrasts with the purple, gold and silver gray on the angel cloak; The skin of Jesus and John contrasts with John's blond curly hair. The dark cave allowed Leonardo da Vinci to play his best contrast between light and shade. This kind of painting was originally painted on a wooden board as an altar with screen paintings on both sides. As an unfinished work, it is different from our copy of Rock Girl in 1508 in words and colors. In the latter picture, the figure is closer, and the angel's unnatural right hand pointing to John has changed. Her eyes stopped staring at the audience, but at the activities of the two children. In this respect, it looks more mature than the last one. But in color, the virgin's dark blue cloak was changed to dark blue, and the angel's red cloak became wings. The tone is not as warm as the last one. Perhaps this is because the painter ran out of energy in his later paintings, or it may be painted by his disciples, but there is no reliable data to prove it.
Painting description
Madonna of the Rock is an altar painting commissioned by Leonardo da Vinci in 1483. The virgin Mary in the painting is exactly like an ordinary kind mother. She sat there, comforting the children around her with kind eyes and kind smiles. On her right is little John the Baptist, and on her left is Jesus and angels in childhood. Young John and Christ Jesus are playing. The virgin mother held little John in her right hand and covered little Jesus' head with her left hand, as if to combine this man with God in love. The heaven next to Jesus held the little savior in one hand and pointed at little John in the other, with a gentle and strange smile and full of painful premonition. Her voice and posture are absolutely beautiful. Feelings are expressed with superb skills. Her gesture seems to contain two meanings, both blessing and protecting children. Little Jesus, who is still a toddler, sits on the ground, showing the innocence of children and implying extraordinary wisdom. The characters in the painting are in harmony with the scenery, giving people a sense of tranquility and harmony. The cave where the Virgin Mary, John and angels are located is said to be the place where God created the world. Those rock walls are like giant black crystals. In the distance, among the rocks, I saw the sun with moisture shining on the sharp blue mountain through the fog clouds, mysterious and solemn. Underground spring water gurgles at the roots of vines and lycopodium, and the ground is covered with hoof-shaped leaves of aquatic plants and calyx of pale white orchids. In the hazy cave, the outline of the human body gradually fades, while the face is like a delicate white jade in the sudden light, full of internal vitality. The harmony between the mother of god and the spirit of nature makes the picture show rich poetry and profound philosophy.
The embodiment of art and science in painting
Leonardo da vinci's achievements in the field of art and science are reflected in his work The Virgin of the Rock. Every rock, grass and flower in the picture is enough to prove Leonardo da Vinci's profound knowledge in geology and botany. In the painting, the soft light reflected by overlapping rock walls in various ways not only creates the subtle texture of the face and body of the characters, but also gives the image an original poetic aura. There are also the organizational structure of the human body, the mechanical laws of wrinkles, and the curly hair of women. These scientific knowledge, which was proved by scientist Leonardo da Vinci with accurate experiments, is now combined into a poetic picture by artist Leonardo da Vinci, and transformed into a vivid and silent music, a beautiful and natural hymn. In his own works, Leonardo da Vinci brought the unattainable and unattainable "God" to the mortal world and became a kind and vivid person. Man and the natural scenery are integrated, and the harmonious atmosphere and the harmonious and quiet natural scenery are fascinating, which naturally reminds people of warm and sweet family life, and the Virgin Mary and Jesus are one of them. However, this painting was criticized by the client. They refused to pay on the grounds that the virgin Mary had no light on her head, John had no cross and angels had no wings, and filed a lawsuit against Leonardo da Vinci, which lasted for 20 years. Until 1508, under the direct guidance of Leonardo da Vinci, his disciple Ambrojo de Poletis completed the reproduction painting of Our Lady of the Rock, put a diaphragm on the heads of the Virgin and Jesus, added a cross to John, made the angel grow wings, and gave the painting to the client, and the lawsuit was over. But compared with the original painting, all the values of copying are far behind.
Painting mystery
For 25 years, the Virgin under the Rock became the focus of contradiction between Leonardo da Vinci and his investors in Milan. Despite the discovery of new documents, part of the inside story of this dispute remains a mystery. Since the disappearance of the first painting, it has become the cause of numerous interest disputes. Delayed work, complaints expressing doubts, court hearings and judgments, one after another, until they agreed to finish the painting. 1483 On April 25th, Leonardo da Vinci accepted the commission and spent more than seven months to finish this painting. But it was not until 1508, 101October 23rd that he was able to sign the works completed in advance and deliver them to the client. This painting is a good combination of Leonardo da Vinci's obscure, mysterious and suggestive painting style, constantly showing symbolic significance and theological thought. Wet caves full of flowers are shrouded in religious and mysterious aura, adding mystery and myth. Disappeared in distant caves and inaccessible mountains show the geological world in endless time and space, which constitute a mysterious stage for the sacred events of pure religion. Every movement seems to be suspended in order to seize the moment that will change human history. The characters in the painting don't meet the promise in I483 contract (the Virgin and the Son are surrounded by two angels and two prophets, but there is no St. John), which shows us Leonardo's heretical attempt.
The meaning of painting
Two paintings from 1485 to 1490, The Musician and the Lady with Ferrets, prove the profound revolution Leonardo brought to the portrait style. Musician is a real reference book, from the "shiny" curly hair in the portrait of Guinevere Benqi to the sculptural figure of Hieronymus. It is strengthened by the strong psychological portrayal of the new role, which will be fully displayed in The Lady Holding the Ferret. In the painting "Musician", people can observe the decisive character of Lombardy, the influence brought by the north and the vivid description of the portrait, which reminds people of the singer's musical pause in adjusting "action and breath". It is almost certain that Leonardo da Vinci participated in the creation of this painting. The preparation and painting method of the painting are all from his hands. At most, an assistant like De Poletis helps with a little unimportant work. At the end of 18, people didn't have any reliable materials before the lady with ferrets entered the Polish czar Russian family collection room from Italy. Although it has been restored many times, this painting still has a better deterrent effect on the audience than the Mona Lisa. The rhythm of the picture and the spiral rotation of female images in the space opposite to ferrets are definitely new phenomena in portrait art.