The Chthonic Roots of Leonardo da Vinci’s Youthful Iconography
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/journal.v9i2.1837Keywords:
Leonardo da Vinci, iconography, Greek mythology, Persephone, Narcissus, HadesAbstract
Background: Leonardo da Vinci painted some of the most iconic works of the High Renaissance, and yet some of their iconographic features remain largely unexamined, as do the relevant large-scale conventions of Christian iconography and the Etruscan roots of the Humanist tradition of the period.
Problem statement: An unusual feature that is found in most of Leonardo da Vinci’s depictions of the Virgin Mary is a striking yellow or golden sash around her waist. Such a feature is not found in prior depictions of this central figure of Christian iconography, and in only a few of the works of his immediate pupils, and is thus largely unique to Leonardo. As such, it calls for an analytic appraisal of its derivation as a symbolic trope in his youthful works.
Proposition: An association with the myth of Persephone is developed on the basis of several features of his ‘Virgin of the Rocks’ in particular, in which a yellow sash is a central motif. This mythic identification in turn helps to account for the substantial deviation of this work from the specification of its original commission into an extreme version of the mountainous setting that is common to most of Leonardo’s established works. The roots of this symbolism are then considered in relation to the Etruscan resonances of the Florentine milieu in which Leonardo matured.
References
Amoretti, C. (1804/2016) Trattato Della Pittura and Life of Lionardo da Vinci. (S. T. de' Classici Italiani: Milan).
Blatt, K. (2018) Leonardo da Vinci and The Virgin of the Rocks: One Painter, Two Virgins, Twenty-Five Years. (Cambridge Scholars Publishing: Cambridge)
Bonfante, L. (2015) Etruscan mirrors and the grave (Fig. 9). In : L’écriture et l’espace de la mort. Épigraphie et nécropoles à l'époque préromaine. (Publications de l’École française de Rome: Roma).
Brown, D.A. & Oberhuber, K. (1999) Leonardo's projects, c. 1500-1519. In Clare Farago Leonardo Da Vinci, Selected Scholarship (Taylor & Francis: New York, p. 358).
Browden, H. (2010) Mystery Cults of the Ancient World (Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ).
Botana, F. (2012) Family wisdom in quattrocento Florence: The Benci Aesop. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 75: 53.
Clark, C. & Kemp, M. (1989) Leonardo da Vinci: Revised Edition (Penguin: London).
Freud, S. (1933) Leonardo da Vinci. American Journal of the Medical Sciences. 185(1):120.
Hillard, C. (2018) Leonardo and the Etruscan tomb. Renaissance Quarterly 71(3): 919–58.
Kemp, M. (2019) Leonardo by Leonardo: Leonardo da Vinci (Callaway Arts & Entertainment: New York).
Kharibian, L. (2018) Leonardo: Experience a Masterpiece Catalogue. (National Gallery Publications: London).
Kline, J. (2011) Botticelli's ‘Return of Persephone’: On the source and subject of the ‘Primavera’. The Sixteenth Century Journal. 42(3): 665–688.
Landi, A. (2009) Looking for Leonardo: Are figures in a Florentine altar panel attributed to Italian artist Andrea del Verrocchio actually by Leonardo da Vinci? Smithsonian Magazine, 10, 2009; accessed 10/10/19 from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/looking-for-leonardo-139291863/?no-ist=&page=2.
National Gallery, London. ‘The Virgin of the Rocks,’ Leonardo da Vinci; accessed 10/10/19 from
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/leonardo-da-vinci-the-virgin-of-the-rocks,
Pedretti, C. (1964) Le Lieu Théatral à la Renaissance, ed. Jean Jacquot (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique: Paris, p. 25–34).
Rouse, W.H.D. (trans.) (1940) Nonnus, Dionysiaca. (Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, 354).
Thiis, J. (1913) Leonardo da Vinci: The Florentine years of Leonardo and Verrocchio, trans Jesse Muir (Herbert Jenkins: London).
Tissoni, F. (2016) The Reception of Nonnus in Late Antiquity, Byzantine, and Renaissance Literature. In Brill’s Companion to Nonnus of Panopolis (Brill: Amsterdam, p. 691-713).
Vecce, C. (2017) La Biblioteca Perduta. I Libri di Leonardo [The Lost Library - Leonardo's Books] (Salerno: Rome).
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
