Luke Syson, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Curator in Charge, Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, MMA
Leonardo worked on a surprisingly small number of works—the Mona Lisa among them—refining and altering them over years. This method created a production bottleneck that could only be dealt with through delegating, leaving us with the problem of how we distinguish a fully autograph product from a painting made in the workshop. This lecture by Luke Syson (organizer of the triumphant exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan, at London's National Gallery) explores artistic production, collaboration, and delegation, and will track Leonardo's personal journey from a solitary artist to a collaborator working with pupils, assistants, and peers, and back.
This series is made possible by the Giorgio S. Sacerdote Fund.
Today's Topic
Leonardo da Vinci: Singular and Plural
Image above: Leonardo da Vinci (Italian 1452–1519) A Bear Walking, ca. 1490, metalpoint on light buff prepared paper, 4 1/16 x 5 1/4 in. (10.3 x 13.3 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 (1975.1.369)
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