 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
In March 1481, Leonardo signed a contract with the monastery of S. Donato a Scopeto for a large altar-piece, to be delivered within 30 months. The work remained unfinished and 15 years later they gave the contract to Filippino Lippi. Despite remaining unfinished, Leonardo's "The Adoration Of The Magi" is a landmark in his early work. He was at the end of his twenties and no longer a novice in the painting profession, having 10 years behind him since he was enrolled in the guild of painters.
| Like his predecessors and contemporaries, Leonardo was interested in perspective. The landmark step towards central or linear perspective in art had been taken by the first generation of early Renaissance artists. |   |
Leonardo's perspective study for his painting "The Adoration of the Magi" shows the perspective guidelines, which would not of course appear in the final painting. That painting dates from c.1481 but it remained unfinished as noted by Janeway in [
79 Concerning Flight] when she admonishes Holo-Leonardo for not finishing things (she has the benefit of historical hindsight, of course). The painting itself is not seen in [Voyager].
Janeway: "Your beautiful painting of the Adoration, the great bronze horse in Milan, the Battle of Anghiari - unfinished, all of them. You were going to publish your notebooks. You never did. You have given up, abandoned your most important works."
Janeway as Catarina, Holo-Leonardo's apprentice, castigates the Maestro who hangs his head, [79 Concernng Flight]
 drawing for "The Adoration of the Magi" painting - note perspective guidelines |
 "The Adoration of the Magi", the picture remained incomplete |
Leonardo's ideas for "The Adoration of the Magi" were bold and large - the Madonna is the tranquil centre full of passionately animate figures who express strong emotions of reverence and astonishment. Many of the picture's elements and portrait features would appear stylistically-speaking in Leonardo's later works e.g. the mysterious group of armed riders in the background who appear in his much later "The Battle Of Anghiari". For the first time, Leonardo arranged the figures into a pyramid, which was a compostional scheme that was much copied in Renaissance painting.
We do not know why Leonardo did not complete the work. Possibly he did not believe he could not live up to his own high standards, or was he sidetracked? Tuvok in [79 Concerning Flight] mentions Leonardo's "notorious unreliability" although at this point in his life that reputation was not yet fully established. At that time also, the "non finito" (the unfinished picture) was not an autonomous art form as it was later to become in the 19th century.
After working for months on "The Adoration Of The Magi", Leonardo decided to close his studio in Florence and headed north for Milan. He would not return to Florence until 1500 after the French overthrow his Milanese patron the ruler Duke Ludovico Sforza.
|
|
|
Janet's Star Trek Voyager Site