By SOUREN MELIKIAN
Published: April 6, 2012
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PARIS — "La Sainte Anne, l'ultime chef-d'oeuvre de Léonard de Vinci," on view at the Louvre through June 25 is one of those rare art historical undertakings that turn a rigorous academic exposé into an admirable art show.
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Its stated purpose is to demonstrate that Leonardo began around 1501 to work on the famous Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, called for short the "Sainte Anne," and had not fully finished the picture at the time of his death, in 1519.
All documents relating to the composition of the painting, including some recent discoveries, are carefully reviewed by the Louvre curator Vincent Delieuvin who staged the show. Together with the scientific examination carried out in 2008 before the restoration of the picture, they build up a compelling case. The exhibition book edited by Mr. Delieuvin, who also contributed essential parts of it, will remain as a landmark in Leonardo studies.
To art lovers unconcerned about the minutiae of scholarly studies, a better knowledge of the genesis of a specific picture may not be hugely exciting. Sure enough, that is not what makes the show and the book truly remarkable. Its irresistible albeit unintended appeal lies elsewhere. The great revelations of this show are all about the limitations of our perception in art, its variations from one period to another and the changes these trigger in the hierarchy of our artistic values.
It was only by the late 19th century that the "Sainte Anne" came to be recognized as Leonardo's work. Unlike his other two major paintings in the Louvre, "La Vierge aux Rochers" — a Virgin and Child with the infant Saint John the Baptist — and "La Joconde," alias Mona Lisa, the "Sainte Anne" was not ensconced in the French Royal Collection since the early 16th century.
The circumstances of its undertaking remain unknown. The earliest mention of the picture only occurs in 1651. It is made by Raphaël Trichet du Fresne in his biography of Leonardo that serves as an introduction to the Italian edition of the "Treatise on Painting" published that year.
By the time the "Sainte Anne" entered the newly founded Musée du Louvre in 1797 with the other Leonardos seized from the French Royal Collection, the art world was barely aware of its existence. It did not arouse much enthusiasm in the next few decades. The painter and art critic Gabriel Laviron considered the composition to be "singular rather than original" while the writer Louis Viardot admired its refined craftsmanship, but thought that the style was not high-minded enough.
The catalog of Old Master paintings in the Louvre published in 1849 echoed divergent views. To explain the doubts voiced by some regarding the autograph character of the "Sainte Anne," it cited what was thought to be the poor condition of the work and took for granted that studio assistants had taken a substantial participation in its execution.
Luckily, compelling beauty in those days gained the upper hand over scholarly opinion. The "Sainte Anne" was hung alongside other pictures seen as the most important masterpieces in the museum.
The discussion of the picture in relationship to full-scale preparatory cartoons and to small sketches of details then began. Soon, scholars realized that there were distinct stages in Leonardo's approach to the subject.
An admirable large-scale cartoon had been rediscovered in the National Gallery in London in the 1830s by two great German connoisseurs, Johann David Passavant and Gustav Friedrich Waagen, and was hailed almost unanimously as a major work from Leonardo's hand. At first, however, the discovery of the London cartoon did not strengthen the case for the authenticity of the "Sainte Anne," quite the contrary.
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