The Virgin and Child with St Anne

Leonardo da Vinci

Contemporary-Art.org
Keywords: VirginChildAnne

Work Overview

Artist Leonardo da Vinci
Year circa 1503
Medium Oil on wood
Dimensions 168 cm × 112 cm (66 in × 44 in)
Location Louvre, Paris
Accession INV 776


The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne is an oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci depicting St Anne, her daughter the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. Christ is shown grappling with a sacrificial lamb symbolizing his Passion as the Virgin tries to restrain him. The painting was commissioned as the high altarpiece for the Church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence and its theme had long preoccupied Leonardo.


In 1498, Leonardo probed into incorporating these figures together by drawing the Burlington House Cartoon (National Gallery). In 2008, a curator at the Louvre discovered several faint sketches believed to have been made by Leonardo on the back of the painting.[1][2][3] Infrared reflectography was used to reveal a "7-by-4 inch drawing of a horse's head", which had a resemblance to sketches of horses that da Vinci had made previously before drawing The Battle of Anghiari. Also revealed was a second sketch 6 1⁄2 inch-by-4 inch depiction of half a skull. A third sketch showed the infant Jesus playing with a lamb, which sketch was similar to that which is painted on the front side.[1] The Louvre spokesperson said that the sketches were "very probably" made by Leonardo and that it was the first time that any drawing had been found on the "flip side of one of his works". The drawings will be further studied by a group of experts as the painting undergoes restoration.


Leonardo's painting is at once both pleasing, calm yet confusing upon closer examination. The composition of the three figures is fairly tight, with the Virgin Mary clearly interacting actively with the infant Jesus. Upon closer examination of their positioning it is apparent that Mary is sitting on St Anne's lap. It is unclear what meaning this could have and what meaning Leonardo intended to project with that pose. There is no clear parallel in other works of art and women sitting in each other's lap are not a clear cultural or traditional reference that the viewer can relate to. Additionally, although the exact sizes of neither the Mother Virgin nor St Anne are known, it can be extrapolated from the painting that St Anne is a significantly larger person than Mary. This subtle yet perceptible distortion in size was utilized by Leonardo to emphasize the mother daughter relationship between the two women despite the apparent lack of visual cues to the greater age of St Anne that would otherwise identify her as the mother. The child is holding a lamb. we also see that Mary is staring into her child's eyes but st Anne is staring at Mary. As Mary is sitting on her lap and St Anne is staring at the virgin Mary Leonardo was maybe trying to point a message across about their relationship and personalities.


Sigmund Freud undertook a psychoanalytic examination of Leonardo in his essay Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood. According to Freud, the Virgin's garment reveals a vulture when viewed sideways. Freud claimed that this was a manifestation of a "passive homosexual" childhood fantasy that Leonardo wrote about in the Codex Atlanticus, in which he recounts being attacked as an infant in his crib by the tail of a vulture. Freud translated the passage thus:"It seems that I was always destined to be so deeply concerned with vultures—for I recall as one of my very earliest memories that while I was in my cradle a vulture came down to me, and opened my mouth with its tail, and struck me many times with its tail against my lips."


Unfortunately for Freud, the word 'vulture' was a mistranslation by the German translator of the Codex and the bird that Leonardo imagined was in fact a kite,[4] a bird of prey which is also occasionally a scavenger. This disappointed Freud because, as he confessed to Lou Andreas-Salomé, he regarded Leonardo as 'the only beautiful thing I have ever written'. Some Freudian scholars have, however, made attempts to repair the theory by incorporating the kite.


Another theory proposed by Freud attempts to explain Leonardo's fondness of depicting the Virgin Mary with St Anne. Leonardo, was raised by his blood mother initially before being 'adopted' by the wife of his father Ser Piero. The idea of depicting the Mother of God with her own mother was therefore particularly close to Leonardo's heart, because he, in a sense, had 'two mothers' himself. It is worth noting that in both versions of the composition (the Louvre painting and the London cartoon) it is hard to discern whether St Anne is a full generation older than Mary.


On 7 October 2011 Le Journal des Arts, a Paris art publication, reported that the restoration posed more danger to the painting than was previously expected.[5] In late December 2011 and early January 2012 reports emerged that Ségolène Bergeon Langle, the former director of conservation for the Louvre and France’s national museums, and Jean-Pierre Cuzin, the former director of paintings at the Louvre, both of the advisory committee supervising the painting’s restoration, had resigned[6] over a painting cleaning controversy, with critics claiming that the painting has been damaged by being cleaned so it became brighter than the artist ever intended.[7] Other experts spoke out in favour of the cleaning treatment.


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Saint Anne, the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus – three generations, two the fruit of immaculate conception – are portrayed in a landscape. The picture was very probably commissioned as an ex-voto to Saint Anne in gratitude for the birth of Louis XII’s daughter, but Leonardo worked too long on the picture to deliver it. The composition is a fine example of his experimentation with figure composition and greatly inspired artists of the following generation.
The little-known circumstances of a prestigious acquisition
The picture is thought to have been commissioned by Louis XII of France to celebrate the birth of his only daughter, Claude, in 1499 – Anne was the name of his wife and of the patron saint of infertile and pregnant women. But the picture was never delivered to Louis XII since an observer noted its presence in Leonardo’s workshop in 1517 – the artist was then lodged by François I at Cloux, near Amboise. The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne’s reported presence in the Palais Cardinal (the present-day Palais Royal) in 1651 has fuelled the hypothesis that the picture entered the royal collection via Richelieu’s ministrations. But in all likelihood it was François I who acquired it from Leonardo’s assistant, Salai, for a considerable sum recorded in archives. However, prior to Le Brun’s 1683 inventory, no record of such a picture at the Château de Fontainebleau confirms this.
The symbiosis of form and meaning
Several preparatory works – the cartoon in the National Gallery in London and several drawings including the one in the Louvre (RF 460) – retrace the work’s gradual development. Leonardo replaced the young Saint John the Baptist in the first sketch by a symbol, the Lamb of God, and slid the Infant Jesus off his mother’s knees towards the ground. He gave more importance to Saint Anne, who becomes the axis of a triangular composition. The figures’ natural gestures interlock with one another: Anne’s right arm blends with Mary’s, whose head conceals her mother’s shoulder, and Mary’s left arm is prolonged by Christ’s. This interplay conveys meaning: the idea of lineage and the Incarnation of Christ, whose destiny, the Passion, is foreshadowed by the Lamb at the precipice’s edge. Leonardo’s originality here lies in his iconography (the addition of the Lamb) and his geometric yet dynamic composition.
A fascinating and typically “Leonardesque” composition
As he did in The Virgin of the Rocks, Leonardo set a religious scene in a fantastic landscape and placed an abyss between viewer and figures. The mountainous distance is conveyed by atmospheric perspective with bluish and crystalline highlights and reflects his interest in geology and meteorological phenomena.
The sfumato, Leonardo’s trademark painterly effect, unifies the composition by enveloping the figures and landscape in a diffuse, evanescent and poetic haze. This imbues the highly expressive faces with great gentleness. The work exudes an aura of strangeness which, combined with the subtle expressions and the picture’s unfinished state has given rise to a number of psychoanalytical interpretations since Freud.
The picture decisively influenced subsequent generations of artists, both classically-inspired painters such as Raphael and Solario, and Mannerists such as Andrea del Sarto (Charity, INV 712).


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Da Vinci’s Madonna and Child with Saint Anne reveals an endearing family scene rich with displays of intimate tenderness and affection. The Virgin is caught in a moment of rapture of motherly love, while St. Anne shows a more sober attitude; Christ child, playing beneath the two, returns an ambiguous look. The scope of sentiment brings to mind The Last Supper, where each apostle marks a different point in a broad emotional arch.


The image combines two canonic Catholic themes. One is the meeting of generations, where the grandmother, the mother, and the child appear together, interacting. The other is the notion of the sacrifice and passion, represented by the the lamb, and the toddler holding it.
More often than not the central mood in visual expression of both themes tends towards the contemplative, or mournful — reflecting the magnitude of forthcoming distant events. Da Vinci, however, prefers to focus on the immediate rather than the distant, investing the painting with urgent emotional energy. Contemplation is only marginally suggested by the misty background and St. Anne’s aloof expression.


Idyll turned Tragedy


While thoughtful, St. Anne’s face also beams with joy, her curving smile (a trademark motif that reappears in the Mona Lisa) and the arm stuck in her side betraying signs of good-natured irony. The way the child irreverently plays with the lamb, and looks up, with perhaps just a glint of mischief, underscores the idyllic tones of the scene. Overall, on a literal level the group telegraphs a sense of deep trust and unconditional support.


Indeed, the image may appear idyllic at first — a love-drenched family scene with a pet — but its underlying dark motifs gradually take shape as we lower our gaze and look closer at the child. Da Vinci makes him reveal his purpose in subtle motions and gestures: he holds the lamb in a such a way as to create a juxtaposition between its head and his own. His inquisitive, ambiguous look narrates his actions: “look at us, mother, we’re exactly the same.”
Common context (basic understanding of Christian iconography) bridges between the literal and the suggested figurative meaning. The artist assumes that the observers know their catechisms: there is no actual gap if the religious background is taken for granted. If we are to interpret the painting correctly, we must be familiar with the concept of Jesus’ sacrifice.


Composition


In front of us is a dynamic composition that’s barely contained by the classic pyramid shape: every actor moves and interacts with the others, threatening to break the triangular boundaries — which may appear somewhat artificial as a result.
In a sudden descent, Madonna lowers her body to form a ninety degree angle with St. Anne’s mostly upright position. She responds to the activity and meaning ensuing from below: the child is playing with the animal as if it were a close pet, holding it by the ears, and pinning to the ground with a plump leg.


St. Anne is removed from Christ and his martyrdom both generationally and via visual hierarchy, a distance also emphasized by Mary’s sudden rush downwards, away from her mother, towards the child. Physically, the matriarch tops the group, and appears the largest of the participants. As our eyes travel down, the shapes become smaller — but their significance grows in inverse proportion, as they accumulate more symbolism.


Meaning


The emotional force of the Virgin’s impulse towards her son anticipates another Christian canon, the Pieta. The child’s grip on the lamb symbolizes how tightly linked — apparently with all his limbs, as he would be with the cross — he is to the sacrifice the animal represents. He guides the lamb to look up at the mother, as if saying “I am — it, and it — is me,” forcing the parent to acknowledge the forthcoming passion.
At once being held and being let go (a tragic struggle), child Christ is confined between Mary and the lamb. He forms a link in a notional chain, suggesting a familiar religious narrative: he comes from one — the Virgin and the immaculate conception — to become the other — the martyred Messiah, the Saviour. As a mother, Madonna is at odds with the sacrifice, as a saint, she accepts it.


By being placed between the Madonna and the lamb, small Jesus is made to mark “a stage” between his human start and divine purpose. Such compositional placement allows to infer the concept of the duality of Christ, as he absorbs from both ends, uniting them into one. He is made a mediator, reflecting his function of connecting between believing Christians and God.


Visual Devices


To give his ideas a powerful visual anchor, Da Vinci creates a memorable repetition effect of outstretched hands. We see both Madonna and child extend their hands in an almost identical embracing motion; the repetition generates a visual rhythm, as our eyes go back and forth, following the saints as they return each other’s glances.
This rhythmic device features the child in two different roles: as a passive agent when held by Mary, and as an active one when he holds the lamb. This dichotomous agency — during which the child is equated to the passive sacrificial animal — may again imply the dual transcendent nature of Christ.


Given a Chance


The misty, grand, mountainous landscape in the background encourages contemplation, much like it is reflected in St. Anne’s face. She, like us, is an almost external observer, removed somewhat from the mother and son physically, allowed to literally keep her head in the clouds.
Like her, we are all given a chance to contemplate the story of Christian becoming in an abstract, removed manner. We are given this chance by God — and by Leonardo da Vinci.


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Leonardo first explored the topic of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne around about 1498. His original sketch is now lost to us, but in the one illustrated below, commonly termed the Burlington House Cartoon, the infant Christ is shown blessing a young St. John during a meeting in the desert. This is only one of many sketches on the theme that was never translated into a painting; Leonardo was to entirely abandon these earlier ideas. Cartoons are preparatory large-scale drawings intended to be transferred to a wall or canvas during the final painting; this one was named after the British collection which once owned it. Many scholars prefer the Burlington House Cartoon to Leonardo's completed oil painting, pointing out how the face of the Madonna is much more natural and less wooden looking.


The Burlington House cartoon covers eight sheets of tinted paper and is drawn in charcoal with chalk highlights. It is one of the most important works in the National Gallery, London who keep it in a darkened room to prevent fading. When originally exhibited in Florence this cartoon received an acclaim almost comparable to that of a completed painting and it has long been considered one of Leonardo's finest works, easily on a par with the Last Supper. Though Leonardo never painted this cartoon it inspired another artist to produce the Virgin and St. Anne which is in the collection of Professor Lauritz Weibull of Lund, Switzerland. 


The oil painting of the Virgin And Child With St. Anne is thought to date from 1507-1513. We owe this panel to the modesty of Filippino Lippi who turned down the commission and suggested Leonardo as, "a greater artist".


An account of the cartoon for this painting indicates it may have been modified at some stage, perhaps as an afterthought. A description of the original sketch describes St. Anne as restraining her daughter from discouraging the Child in pulling the lamb's ears. This is not what can be seen today; our view is of a rather detached watching grandmother. It is quite possible the original concept for this painting had St. Anne's hand lying on her daughter's sleeve; this could easily be cancelled out by painting the Virgin's sleeve over the top of it. 


In the painting the infant is shown holding a lamb, this is symbolic of himself, as Jesus is often termed the 'lamb of God'. The angle of the lamb's head, and the tight woolly curls repeated on the head of the Child, connect the two. Continuing the idea of connections, Leonardo has positioned the two sets of arms like links in a chain. Atop the chain is St. Anne, slightly set apart in the composition by the line of the Virgin's shoulder, her downward glance and the use of darker skin tones on her face. Behind them the trees definitely belong to the earth while the mountains and lake seem almost heavenly. Though this work has been much acclaimed, it has also been much criticised due to the very artificial poses. 


The five by four foot painting was commissioned by the monks of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence for their high altar. Some consider this painting to be a treasure of esoterica and occult wonders. Some are fascinated by the sight of St. Anne supporting her heavy daughter on her knee, and with no visible means of support. Others are convinced that hidden in the folds of the draping over the arms is the shape of a vulture, the head and neck can be found in the blue cloak encircling the Madonna and the bird's tail points towards the infant's mouth. Most are skeptical about this idea, though Dr. Sigmund Freud supported it and claimed that it was a repercussion of a fantasy Leonardo had when he was a child and which he noted in Codex Atlanticus:


"Among the first recollections of my childhood it seemed to me that, as I lay in my cradle, a kite came to me and opened my mouth with its tail and struck me several times with its tail between my lips. "


Freud saw this as a "passive homosexual fantasy" and thought it also accounted for the strange and bewitching smiles on the lips of many of Leonardo's subjects. 


The Virgin And Child With St. Anne has been retouched, and was left unfinished with the drapery covering the Virgin's legs being little more than an outline. Why is unknown, though it may have been due to Leonardo's increasing interest in mathematics and subsequent engagement as engineer in the service of Cesare Borgia. In places the paint has been applied so thinly it is almost transparent allowing the underlying sketch to be visible. The appearance of this worsened after a 1953 cleaning of the oil on wood artwork, during which overpainting was removed and dark varnish lightened. 


A close study shows the lamb has been completed by another artist so the painting may have been abandoned at a time when the lamb had still only been sketched in. The background, St Anne, the Virgin and the Child are thought to be from the hand of Leonardo himself though some doubt exists about the heads as they lack the fine texture of the Mona Lisa. Suggestions have been made that these were worked on by a pupil of Leonardo's. 


At the same time this painting was in progress Leonardo was experimenting with preparations which he hoped would result in an improved varnish for his work; unfortunately these experiments were a failure. This mattered little; Leonardo still had 10 years to live, but by 1508 his career as a painter was drawing to a close and after maybe as much as ten years of intermittent work on this painting he gave up. 


With Leonardo not completing Virgin and Child with St. Anne in time for the altar, Filippino Lippi decided to return to the task, working on a Deposition. He was to die before having the chance to finish his painting and it was finally completed later by Perugino.