Leonardo’s Milan brought to life at the National Gallery

Associated media

Leonardo Da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan

Rosalind Ormiston reports from the opening of a unique exhibition

The National Gallery’s landmark exhibition ‘Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan’ – already a blockbuster in sales before opening its doors to the public on 9 November – is simply the most stunning display of Leonardo da Vinci paintings and drawings to be shown together in one exhibition. Moreover, it features the largest number ever shown of Leonardo’s rare surviving works, created during the artist’s 17-year period in Milan as court painter to the regent and later ruler of Milan, Ludovico Maria Sforza (1452–1508), known as ‘il Moro’ (the Moor).

Around 1482 the Florentine artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), wrote to Ludovico asking for employment. The list of Leonardo’s skills included reference to his aspirations as an engineer, architect and designer of military equipment. In the last paragraph he mentions that he also an able sculptor and painter. One imagines that Ludovico, aware of Leonardo’s talent as an artist, humoured his aspirations as a designer of military equipment, took him in, and then set him to work painting.

Whatever the relationship between them – and Ludovico admired Leonardo immensely – it was during this period that many of Leonardo’s most remarkable paintings were produced.  The National Gallery exhibition, ‘Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan’ is the first to be dedicated to the artist’s aims and ambitions whilst working for the Sforza. Arriving c.1482, Leonardo stayed more or less permanently at the Sforza court until 1499 when Ludovico – now Duke of Milan - was obliged to leave the city hastily owing to the arrival of French forces. With his patron gone, Leonardo returned to Florence at the end of 1499.

Walking through the rooms of this exhibition at the National Gallery, the immediate sensation is of Leonardo, the painter, present within. To use an overworked phrase, one is taken on a journey through Leonardo’s life at the Court of Milan. His ambition may have been to build bridges, divert river courses, and create military warfare machines but what we see, what is imparted to us, in every room, is his brilliance as a painter. It is a stunning, effective display and apart from the obvious reality of Leonardo’s own contribution, credit must be given to the brilliance of the curator, Luke Syson. In each room one’s eye is immediately drawn to a carefully positioned painting by Leonardo. From there one is shown related drawings, or perhaps a complementary work by one of Leonardo’s pupils or assistants.

It’s a heady mix but not overfull; it is possible to see everything without being overwhelmed by too much information and space is given to allow one to appreciate all the works on display. Some critics have disliked the inclusion of works by Leonardo’s assistants and pupils as a distraction; however, it is such a rarity to be able to compare and contrast Leonardo’s paintings and drawings alongside his assistants’ works that it can only enhance one’s appreciation.

The layout of the exhibition subtly follows a chronological route from Leonardo’s first appearance in Milan in 1482. In Room 1, the focus is on his painting Portrait of a Young Man (The Musician), c. 1486–7, a three-quarter profile, possibly of the musician Atalante Migliorotti (active 1482–1535) with whom Leonardo had travelled to Milan. The facial expression gives the appearance that Migliorotti has just finished singing or playing – he holds a piece of paper with music on it in his hands.  It is said that Leonardo  arrived in the city bearing the gift of a silver lyre in the shape of a horse’s head – the horse was an emblem of the Sforza family – for Ludovico, a present from the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de’ Medici.

Leonardo was quite an accomplished musician himself. What is startling – and the point is clearly made in this first room – is that portraiture in Milan followed a strict code whereby the sitter was shown only in profile. Ambrogio de Predis’ Portrait of Ludovico Sforza, c.1496–9 highlights this tradition and contrasts brilliantly with Leonardo’s revolutionary approach to portraiture. The careful juxtaposition of this work with the three-quarter-profile painting Portrait of a Young Man, c.1490–1, by Leonardo’s pupil, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffion, reveals Leonardo’s influence in changing the portraiture tradition.

One moves on to the inner circle of the Sforza Court and the focus in Room 2 centres on two beautiful women in the life of Ludovico. A three-quarter-profile portrait titled The Belle Ferronnière (c.1493–4) is possibly a portrait of his young wife Beatrice d’Este (1475-97). It is an example of Leonardo’s interest in idealized beauty. It is complemented by the painting The Lady with an Ermine, c.1489–90, a three-quarter-profile portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (1473–1536), the young mistress of Ludovico. This has to be the painting of the exhibition. It highlights Leonardo’s ability to capture a specific moment in time, like a freeze-frame, as the young woman turns her head to look toward someone or something that has caught her attention. The ermine she holds is perhaps intended as a symbol of her devotion to Ludovico.

The history of the two women is as interesting as the paintings, and for this one should turn to the National Gallery catalogue, Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan to uncover more about Leonardo’s depictions of them. It would be an excellent idea to read the catalogue before visiting the exhibition. For those unable to view the exhibition during its three-month run, the catalogue is an exemplary piece of research focusing on Leonardo’s time at the Court of Milan and covers every work of art in the exhibition. 

Leonardo’s interest in human anatomy is explored through the Vatican Museum’s painting St Jerome, c.1488–90. Although the work is unfinished – as with so many of Leonardo’s works – it carries a striking depth of emotion. The painting is accompanied by a collection of the artist’s studies of the proportions of the human body, the body’s nervous system, the human skull, which reveal the knowledge he was gaining during his time in Milan.

The centrepiece of ‘Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan’ is saved for the largest room in the exhibition, in which hang the artist’s two versions of the Virgin of the Rocks. The first version is owned by the Louvre while the second belongs to the National Gallery, London.  It was the cleaning of the second version by Larry Keith of the National Gallery that inspired Luke Syson, the exhibition’s curator, and Charles Saumarez Smith, at that time the NG’s director, to request the Louvre to lend the first version for an exhibition.  Standing in the centre of the room one can compare and contrast these works. The first version was commissioned by the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception in 1483, soon after Leonardo arrived in Milan. A disagreement over payment led to the sale of the painting and a second version was then painted from c.1491/2 to 1499 and completed c.1506–8. The 25 years between starting and finishing the works explain why Leonardo needed to create new drawings for the second version. Sketches and drawings from both versions are on display. Whether Leonardo or the commissioners ever saw the paintings together is doubtful, but each work is a truly stunning example of Leonardo’s genius.

What is astonishing about this exhibition and why its ‘blockbuster’ status is justified is not only the quality of the paintings and drawings that have been brought together from all over the world but the new research that has been undertaken during its planning. A wonderful display centred on Leonardo’s Madonna Litta shows how much the painting influenced not only Leonardo’s own assistants and pupils but other painters too. In the final room of the exhibition one is then led to a newly discovered work considered to be possibly Leonardo’s lost work, Christ as Salvator Mundi, c.1499. It was until recently known only until through copies. It is left for the visitor to decide whether it is by Leonardo.

Here it is displayed alongside two other masterpieces from the period, The Madonna of the Yarnwinder (c.1499), and The Burlington House Cartoon (The Virgin and Saint Anne with the Christ Child and the Infant St John) (1499–1500). The works are thought to date to the period when Leonardo’s constant patron, Ludovico Sforza, had to flee Milan before the arrival of the troops of King Louis XII of France. Leonardo, a commercially minded person, probably undertook these commissions for Louis XII, albeit from the safety of Florence, having left Milan at the end of 1499.

Although this ends the main exhibition, the display continues in a free exhibition in the Sunley Room in the main galleries. Here one can study aspects of Leonardo’s masterpiece the Last Supper, c. 1492–7/8). The original was painted directly on to the wall of the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan but the National Gallery have produced a photographic copy of equal dimensions, to exhibit alongside all the preparatory drawings for this work that remain extant. In addition, a copy of Leonardo’s painting by his pupil Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, called Giampietrino (active 1508–49), is here; and was created before the original work disintegrated through a combination of damp and the effects of Leonardo’s unfortunate experimentation with paint techniques.  This is a wonderful conclusion to the exhibition, which equally will stand as an excellent introduction to Leonardo for those unable to visit the ticketed exhibition.

Another first for the National Gallery in relation to this exhibition has been the live broadcast of a preview of ‘Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan’ on SKY Arts HD broadcast on the evening prior to the exhibition opening. On 8 November, from 7 p.m. for 80 minutes, in the company of Mariella Frostrup and Tim Marlow, SKY TV viewers, and visitors to selected cinemas nationwide, were taken on a ‘private view’ in the company of a variety of speakers, including Luke Syson, the exhibition curator,  Nicholas Penny, director of the National Gallery, Renaissance scholar Evelyn Welch, Bishop Stephen Cottrell, the artist Michael Craig Martin and the writer Charles Nicholl. Each gave their personal view of paintings within the exhibition and the life of Leonardo interspersed with pre-recorded film on the artist’s life. I hope that this method of bringing major exhibitions to wider audiences continues.

Luke Syson, curator of the exhibition, remarked that planning for this exhibition at the National Gallery has been an extraordinary moment in his life and an extraordinary moment in his career. In choosing a stunning collection of over 60 paintings and drawings devoted to Leonardo da Vinci at the Court of Milan he has created an extraordinary exhibition that will be hard for any other gallery to match.