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AGM and Annual Lecture: New Evidence of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper as a Humanist Contribution La Bella Principessa and the Warsaw Sforziad, by Pascal Cotte and Martin Kemp Conference Series: Art and Science in the Italian Renaissance Conference: Fame in Art and Science
The Society was founded by the late Kenneth Keele,
who combined a distinguished career in medicine with important research
into the work of Leonardo. Officers have included Sir Ernst Gombrich
and Martin Kemp. It is notable that, while all three scholars could
correctly be described as experts on the work of Leonardo, none
of them was or is a specialist on Leonardo in the sense of carrying
out research only into the work of Leonardo. That, of course, also
tells one something about Leonardo.
The Leonardo da Vinci Society is well established
as providing a forum for those interested in Leonardo or more generally
in the aspects of the culture of his time to which he contributed.
The Society's interests also extend to the Art/Science overlap in
other periods (due account being taken of the historical evolution
of both the terms concerned). See recent reviews and publications
in the newsletter.
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The Leonardo da Vinci Society would welcome new members. To become a member, complete and post the membership form PDF or MS Word document. If you pay income tax in the UK, please also consider completing the Gift Aid portion of the membership form. To view the pdf form, you may need Adobe Reader, available here. For further information about membership, please contact one of the following committee members: President, Dr. J. V.
Field, Department of History of Art, Film and Visual Media,
Birkbeck College, 43 Gordon Sq., London WC1H 0PD, UK; tel &
fax +(44) (0)20 7736 9198, email: jv.field Vice President and Newsletter Editor, Professor Francis Ames-Lewis, Department of History of Art, Film and Visual Media, Birkbeck College; home address: 52 Prebend Gardens, London W6 0XU, UK; tel & fax +(44) (0)20 8748 1259, email: f.ames-lewis(at)hist-art.bbk.ac.uk. Treasurer and Secretary, Dr. Tony Mann, Head of Department, Mathematical Sciences; School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences; The University of Greenwich; Maritime Greenwich University Campus, 30 Park Row, Greenwich, London SE10 9LS, UK; tel. +(44) (0)20 8331 8709, fax: +(44) (0)20 8331 8665, email: a.mann(at)gre.ac.uk. Publicity and Web Management, Dr. Matthew Landrus, History of Art Department, University of Oxford, Wolfson College, Oxford, OX2 6UD, UK, and at the Rhode Island School of Design; UK tel 0753 094 2043; US tel (001) (401) 374 4159; email: matt(at)mail.wolf.ox.ac.uk. Dr. Monica Azzolini, School of History, Classics & Archeology; University of Edinburgh; William Robertson Building, 50 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JY, UK; tel. +44 (0)131 650 9964, fax: +44 (0)131 651 3070, email: m.azzolini(at)ed.ac.uk. Dr. Juliana Barone, Department of History of Art, Film and Visual Media, Birkbeck College, 43 Gordon Sq., London WC1H 0PD, UK; email: juliana.barone(at)btinternet.com. Ms. Noël-Ann Bradshaw, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences; The University of Greenwich; Maritime Greenwich University Campus, 30 Park Row, Greenwich, London SE10 9LS, UK; tel. +(44) (0)20 8331 8454, fax: +(44) (0)20 8331 8665, email: n.bradshaw(at)gre.ac.uk. Dr. Jill Burke, School of Arts, Culture and Environment; University of Edinburgh; 20 Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1JZ, UK; tel. +44 (0)131 650 4124, fax: +44 (0)131 650 8019, email: jill.burke(at)@ed.ac.uk. Dr. Frank A.J.L. James, Royal Institution Centre for the History of Science and Technology, Royal Institution of Great Britain, 21 Albemarle Street, London W1X.4BS, UK; email: fjames(at)ri.ac.uk. The Leonardo da Vinci Society is a registered charity, no 1012878. ^
Within the history of art Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) represents 'science' and within the history of science he represents art. On the trivial level this means that many art historians take it for granted that his anatomical or optical drawings are correct (that is, in accord with twentieth-century views) while historians of science are sometimes at least equally impressionable, being dazzled by the beauty of the drawings with which they are confronted. In Leonardo's work we are seeing into a culture in which academic specialisations make a map very different from that of our own time, and in which, moreover, there is a considerable degree of social separation between a tradition of university learning, and a tradition of practical skills, despite a notable degree of overlap in subject matter. Nor is the advantage all to the person who is 'learned' in the sense of having university training or being able to read Latin. For instance, in Italy, when it comes to geometry or arithmetic, we may not assume that the fifteenth- or sixteenth-century 'scholar' knew more than the 'craftsman'. Also, the practical tradition fares better than the theoretical one in providing lasting monuments to skill. The dome of Florence cathedral (nearly finished when its designer, Filippo Brunelleschi, died in 1446) now looks much more impressive than fifteenth-century astronomical theories - and not only to non-specialists. Since history of art is a better established discipline than history of science, Leonardo has in fact chiefly been studied from the art side, though (for instance) his innovatory methods of illustration, such as his use of an 'exploded' view, clearly had an influence well beyond the realm of what would now be called fine art.
The Society also publishes a newsletter
containing news, reviews and bibliographies. Suggestions of material,
such as forthcoming conferences, symposia and other events, exhibitions,
publications and so on, that would be of interest to members of
the Society for inclusion in this Newsletter should be sent to:
The Editor, Leonardo da Vinci Society Newsletter, 52 Prebend
Gardens, London W6 0XU, UK; tel & fax +(44) (0)20 8748 1259;
email: f.ames-lewis
 hist-art.bbk.ac.uk.
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THE ANNUAL LECTURE AND The 2012 AGM will be on Friday, 27 April at 5:30 pm, at the Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre, Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House. At 6 pm, Dr. Matthew Landrus (Rhode Island School of Design and University of Oxford) will discuss: New Evidence of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper as a Humanist Contribution
Following an extensive period of research on the recently restored Last Supper, there is new evidence of Leonardo's intentions for it as a Humanist contribution to the Sforza Court. Detailed assessments of the painting's preparatory marks, measurements, designs, and associated texts offer proof of its role within the socio-political activities of the Court, and more specifically within a Humanist debate developing in Florence and Milan. It was for Leonardo an opportunity to argue in a visual manner the role of Painting as the ultimate artifice of Nature, reason and experience. His Last Supper is in this case a more complex, holistic contribution than previously determined, an early form of manifesto on Painting as a systematic, Humanist discourse within the Liberal Arts. A poster is available here. Both the annual general meeting and the lecture are free and open to the public. Previous annual lecture announcements are available here. ^
The Universal Leonardo web site (www.universal leonardo.org) is a resource on Leonardo da Vinci. Universal Leonardo is a programme of European exhibitions, scientific research and web resources on Leonardo organised by Artakt, Central Saint Martins College of Art ad Design, the University of the Arts London. Universal Leonardo is co-directed by Prof Marina Wallace, Central Saint Martins, and Prof Martin Kemp, University of Oxford. Highlights of the web site include an interactive timeline at the top of each page visualising the thematic links and interconnections in Leonardo's works over time; images revealing scientific analyses results carried out on The Madonna of the Yarnwinder (The Lansdowne Madonna); interactive games; a gallery of more than 100 zoomable images of Leonardo's works and exhibition details. ^
La Bella Principessa and the Warsaw Sforziad, by Pascal Cotte and Martin Kemp This is a significant update to a book published in 2010 by Pascal Cotte and Martin Kemp, on an exceptional portait on vellum executed in inks and coloured chalks. This article offers evidence of the original location of the portrait in the Warsaw Sforziad. Beginning its journey as a German 19th-century pastiche in 1998, the portrait on vellum is now considered one of the works by Leonardo, about which we know most in terms of its patronage, subject, date, original location, function and innovatory technique. The article is here. ^
ART AND SCIENCE IN THE ITALIAN
RENAISSANCE It is essentially due to what today's historians would regard as an ill chosen set of categories that Leonardo, that is his historical persona, has become a symbol for the meeting of Art and Science, though his activities are indeed unusually multifarious even by the standards of his own time. However, if the categories of Art and Science are defined in twentieth-century terms, Leonardo's work does indeed span them, and since 1990 the Leonardo da Vinci Society has organised an annual series of one-day conferences, in partnership with the Society for Renaissance Studies, on the general theme 'Art and Science in the Italian Renaissance'. Topics treated have included anatomy, optics, engineering, maps, proportion, botany, Vitruvian studies and music. The liveliness of the discussions has tended to confirm that the Society is providing a useful opportunity for the meeting of minds, and helping historians of science, medicine, engineering, architecture and art to bridge the gaps that, since Leonardo's time, have opened up between the disciplines in which he took an active interest. Notes about previous meetings are in the Society newsletters and archives. ^
A conference organised jointly by
Programme 1030 Registration and tea/coffee 1110 Welcome: Frank A. J. L. James (Royal Institution) 1115 Introduction: J. V. Field (Birkbeck, University of London) 1130 Paul Hills (Courtauld Institute, University of London) 1210 Stephen Pumfrey (University of Lancaster) 1250 J. V. Field 1330 Lunch interval 1500 Jon Whiteley (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) 1540 David Knight (University of Durham) 1620 Tea/coffee 1650 Frank A. J. L. James 1730 End of afternoon session 1800 Reception 1900 Martin Kemp (University of Oxford) 2000 Approximate end of the meeting A conference poster is here. The Royal Institution and Leonardo da Vinci Society are registered charities, numbers 227938 and 1012878. ^
Re-Reading Leonardo: The Treatise on Painting across Europe, 1550-1900, edited and introduced by Claire Farago, Ashgate, 2009. Available at Ashgate and Amazon. Rise of the Image: Essays on the History of the Illustrated Art Book, edited by Rodney Palmer and Thomas Frangenberg, Ashgate, 2003. Available at Ashgate and Amazon. Poetry on Art: Renaissance to Romanticism, edited by Thomas Frangenberg, Shaun Tyas, 2003. Usually available at Abebooks. Reports on previous conferences are available in the newsletters. ^
Andrea del Verrocchio, Life and Work, by Dario Covi, Arte e archeologia - Studi e documenti, vol. 27, Olschki, 2005. Available at Olschki. The Common Purposes of Life, Science and Society at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, edited by Frank A.J.L. James, Ashgate, 2002. Available at Ashgate and Amazon. The Correspondence of Michael Faraday, edited by Frank A.J.L. James, Volumes 1-5, The Institution of Engineering and Technology, 1991-2010. Available at The Institution of Engineering and Technology, and Amazon. The Invention of Infinity: Mathematics and Art in the Renaissance, by J.V. Field, Oxford University Press, 1997. Available at Amazon. Leonardo, by Martin Kemp, Oxford University Press, 2004. Available at Amazon. Leonardo da Vinci and his circle: drawings in British collections, edited by Martin Kemp and Juliana Barone, Giunti, 2010. Available at Giunti. Leonardo da Vinci's Giant Crossbow, by Matthew Landrus, Springer, 2010. Available at Amazon. Leonardo da Vinci: Life and Work, and Treasures of Leonardo da Vinci, by Matthew Landrus, Carlton and HarperCollins, 2006, 2009. Available at here, and here. ^ Lezioni dell'occhio, Leonardo da Vinci discepolo dell'esperienza, by Martin Kemp, Vita e Pensiero, 2004. Available at LibroCo. Piero della Francesca. A Mathematician's Art, by J.V. Field, Yale University Press, 2005. Available at Amazon. Reactions to the Master: Michelangelo's Effect on Art and Artists in the Sixteenth Century, edited by Francis Ames-Lewis and Paul Joannides, Ashgate, 2003. Available at Ashgate and Amazon.
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