Mid way through the exhibition of Da Vinci works at the Walker Art gallery and before the main exhibition at the Queens Gallery in Buckingham Palace, LIAS Tutors talk about the great Master.
The Great Paul Gatensby spares a few thoughts
There many reasons to admire the Da Vinci Drawings, as evidence of his extraordinary inventiveness, delicacy of touch or consummate skill with such unforgiving media as silver point. Yet I’m always drawn first to his anatomy studies, (possibly because of my obsession with life drawing)
The Walker exhibition has ‘Muscles of the Upper Spine’ c 1510, a study which views the human body as a structure, a piece of engineering. In the modern world we might expect a dispassionate approach but Da Vinci lived in an age still informed by such medieval notions as the four humours and the received wisdom of ancient authors – many of whom had been lost in the West but were being newly translated into Latin from Arabic.
Da Vinci, however is breaking away from the ancient authorities and taking an empirical approach to acquiring knowledge via observation, experiment and analysis. His anatomical work is pure science.
There is something of this in the drawings, they are beautifully executed yet shorn of everything but the essential information; we might call them the first scientific illustrations.
Although known to artists (Rubens certainly saw them) the anatomical drawings were not published in their entirety until the late 19th century and thus represent one of the great ‘what if’ moments in humanities search for knowledge. We can neve know what impact his work might have had on medical history had it been published in his day. Still we are left with a remarkable insight into a remarkable mind.
Alison introduces some new perspectives
Although I enjoyed the exhibition I was disappointed by the lack of exhibits of Da Vinci’ works. I found the video insightful and the depth of information about creative process’ of the day remarkable. Graphically I was enthralled by the technique of writing in reverse, I am looking to replicate this visually, however I was planning to use software rather than a mirror.
Toc talks some more…
There are commemorative events about the work of the greatest master Leonardo Da Vinci around the country at the moment. The Liverpool Walker collection of his drawings is, I think, very well worth seeing. (It runs alongside the paying exhibition of Mackintosh and both catalogues can be bought together at a saving.) The drawings, of enormous subtlety and delicacy are all about looking as an act of discovery. They have the remarkable logic and clarity of scientific investigation combined with the grace and elegance of the Renaissance artist. In short, they are largely perfect. Outside the show are two short videos of research and context and these, as much as the show itself gave me an insight into his thinking. Like most artists, his prep sketches were never meant for public consumption but as steps toward his more finished painting and sculpture. I wonder how he would have felt to see people queuing around framed pages from his sketchbooks. The video explaining his use of materials, hand tinted paper, red and black chalks of varied hardnesses, ink wash and quill pen and very modern mixes of watercolour and gum Arabic stored in oyster shells rather than plastic spoke of a time without the environmental damage of our mass produced plastics. It was seeing his materials and simple processes that helped me feel connected across time to him more than the work itself.
Exhibition continues until the 6th of May.
More about Da Vinci at the Walker Gallery
An increasingly important theme of Print Club over the last few weeks has been the importance of samples and what we can learn from our experiments and evaluations in sketchbook. We are often looking at combining drypoint processes with building up textures on the plate and finding the different tonal qualities of various materials such as varnishes, glues, spray paints and sand. These then permit individual artists to log the initial phrases in what is a visual vocabulary and analyse how these can be employed in future images. Again it is important for me to see sketchbook as a repository of thinking and planning and an external hard drive for the brain. I include here some recent sketchbook samples including those made by dragging a comb through varnish and inking up the resultant lines and a more fully developed semi-abstract landscape by Ursula to present the connections. The design cycle is alive and well and living at Liverpool Independent Art School Rose Lane studios. Print Club runs on Friday and Sunday afternoons on a drop in basis.
