The Royal Academy’s exhibition: “Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence c. 1504”

I’ve recently visited this fabulous exhibition at the Royal Academy in London. I left the gallery elated.

The Royal Academy have pit together works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael and focused on the year 1504 – when all three of them briefly crossed paths in Florence and competed for patronage from wealthy patrons. The exhibition focuses on three of the greatest Renaissance works in Britain - The Taddei Tondo, The Bridgewater Madonna and The Burlington House cartoon.

I loved it and was beside myself with excitement in the world of these Renaissance greats. I especially love shows which focus on art history in some depth (such as the possible reason for the Burlington House cartoon).

Overall score: ★★★★★ 5/5

✲✲✲

Gallery 1 - “Michelangelo, Raphael and The Taddei Tondo”

The exhibition is split into three rooms and the first room focuses very much on the Royal Academy’s Michelangelo masterpiece The Taddei Tondo.

This tondo (meaning “round”) is the only significant marble work by Michelangelo in any permanent UK collection and it’s beautifully displayed.

The Virgin and Child with Infant St John the Baptist (The Taddei Tondo)

In this marble, the infant St John presents the baby Christ with a goldfinch (the symbol of his Passion). The baby turns away from the bird in fear. As I said, it’s the only marble sculpture by Michelangelo in Britain and despite being unfinished, it is widely regarded as one of his most important works. 

Michelangelo never completed the relief, which shows different degrees of finish – e.g., the goldfinch is hardly recognisable. 

The painting below gives the visitors something of a sense of Florence in that 1504 period. You get an impression for the relatively small size of the Florence while recognising its bustling metropolis-like environment to which Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael were drawn.

The first drawings we get to see are from Michelangelo. These are some of his earliest surviving drawings – from the early 1490s. They’ve been brought to this exhibition to tingle the spine but also to explore how Michelangelo developed as an artist.

Pen and brown ink on paper.

Then we’re bought forward to the period of around 1504 and we get to see some truly exquisite drawings by Michelangelo (such as the below male nude).

Pen and brown ink and chalk on paper.

Michelangelo then seems to converge artistically closer to the subject matter of The Taddei Tondo – which is the Virgin and Child with the infant St John the Baptist.

 

We can see the process involved in creating this tondo play out in front of our eyes and this is one of the reasons why this exhibition is so powerful. (For example, the studies of the infant (St John the Baptist) by Michelangelo were partly inspired by Leonardo’s practice of producing a variety of quick sketches for inspiration and to develop ideas. These are incredibly detailed (and rare!!) sketches which show Michelangelo’s creative process.)

✲✲✲

It’s also extremely fascinating when we see how Raphael was very much influenced by The Taddei Tondo – even in its unfinished state. We can see the influence in many of Raphael sketches from the time. There is something really magical in looking over their shoulders, as it were, and turning to see the Tondo in situ (and being able to see the influence).

Raphael’s exploration of the motif of the Virgin and the twisting Christ Child.

Eventually these pictures of the Virgin and child with the infant John the Baptist came to be shown in The Bridgewater Madonna and a similar theme in the Esterhazy Madonna (lent from Budapest).

 

The Esterhazy Madonna was unfinished.

The Bridgewater Madonna (wiki) with the twisted baby Christ.

✲✲✲

In 1504, there began a discussion about where to place Michelangelo’s David statue within Florence. One of the most thrilling moments was seeing this wonderful sketch of David by Raphael. It’s so beautiful. If I could take any sketch home, it would be that one!! We also get to see Raphael’s Leda and the Swan in the manner of Leonardo da Vinci too. This Florentine synergy is what makes this show so fascinating.

✲✲✲

Gallery 2 - “Leonardo and The Burlington House Cartoon”

The second room focuses on the Burlington House cartoon by Leonardo da Vinci. This is a treasure of the National Gallery. I have already blogged about this Da Vinci cartoon on my blog before.

The purpose of the cartoon has puzzled scholars for generations but this exhibition proposes for the first time that Leonardo made the cartoon as a proposal for an order piece of a church in Florence:

Leonardo made it as a proposal for an altarpiece for the newly built Sala del Gran Consiglio in the Palazzo della Signoria, originally commissioned from Filippino Lippi (1457-1504). The altarpiece’s commission had not been reassigned following Filippino’s death in 1504. Having been summoned to Milan in 1506, Leonardo may have presented the Burlington House Cartoon to the wondering gaze of the curious public upon his return to Florence in 1507. He eventually settled in Milan more permanently in 1508, after which the Signoria turned to Fra Bartolommeo (1472-1517). The latter began work on the panel but, following the return from exile of the Medici, formerly the most powerful family in Florence, never finished it; by 1513, he had completed only the monochrome underpainting.

✲✲✲

Gallery 3 - “The Battles of Michelangelo and Leonardo”

Room 3 focuses on two murals that were proposed but never produced for the Hall at the Piazza della Signoria in Florence.

These two murals – one by Leonardo and one by Michelangelo – were celebrating great Florentine victories. Leonardo was going to be producing a mural depicting Florentine victory over the Milanes at the Battle of Anghiari, whereas Michelangelo was tasked with portraying the Florentine victory over the Pisans at the Battle of Cascina. 

This was a time of glowing Florentine Pride (exemplified by the production of Michelangelo’s David).

In the UK, we are very lucky to have one of the best collections of Renaissance drawings in the world (the British museum, the Royal collection, the Ashmolean etc.) and the room is full of a vast body of preparatory works for the murals.

✲✲✲

The Battle of Anghiari - Unknown Italian Artist, after Leonardo da Vinci, retouched by Peter Paul Rubens

Leonardo focused on portraying four specific military captains locked in a bloody & horrific battle. Two captains of the Milaneses, and two of the papal and Florentine armies.

(Leonardo’s composition was faithfully recorded by an unknown Italian artist.)

✲✲✲

The Battle of Cascina - Bastiano da Sangallo, after Michelangelo

A very different composition of Michelangelo (which was faithfully recorded by another artist). No violence and no horror of war, but the instant of the horn blaring an impending attack. Soldiers bathing in the river Arno.

✲✲✲

It’s fascinating to see how both artists went about portraying the battle. 

We see Leonardo’s trademark anatomical studies and Michelangelo’s obsession with the male nude (reaches its peak in the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling).

What makes these so exciting, for me, is that you’re almost sitting on the shoulders of these great masters as they work out ideas. Although Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael were geniuses, they had to work very hard and experiment and practice their ideas and inspirations.

 

Michelangelo’s male nude, and twisting bodies and shock and surprise.

This is apparently one of the few times Michelangelo explored the human face to convey expression.

✲✲✲

 

That sketch of a man’s leg by Leonardo is phenomenal.

The rearing horse is Leonardo’s motif. 

That horse’s head is rigorously studied.

Wow!

Leonardo’s artistic doodlings!

I absolutely love this - almost a canvass of his brain.