Renaissance rivalry at the Royal Academy

The Virgin and Child with St Anne and the Infant St John, Leonardo Da Vinci ('The Burlington House Cartoon')

This little gem of an exhibition focuses on the relationship between the three great giants of the Renaissance, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael and compliments the King's Gallery exuberant display of Renaissance Drawings. (See ICN www.indcatholicnews.com/news/51203 )

The curators worked closely with The Royal Collection and exhibit ten Leonardo drawings and Raphael's drawing of a copy of Leonardo Da Vinci's lost picture of Leda and the Swan, amongst the forty exhibits. Leonardo's Burlington House Cartoon and Michaelangelo's Tondo are central to this stunning display .

The exhibition begins with the unfinished Taddei Tondo, the only sculpture by Michelangelo in the UK .

Leonardo's vast cartoon masterpiece, consists of eight sheets of paper glued together, depicting the Virgin and Child with St Anne and the infant St John the Baptist. Worked in charcoal with white highlights the focus is on the faces of each figure. The high degree of finish in the modelling of the figures and especially the facial features is highly unusual in a cartoon. It is displayed alone in the Central Hall, returning to the Royal Academy for the first time in 60 years.

A bench is provided offering the opportunity to contemplate this incredible work. It was acquired by the National Gallery in 1962. Both John the Baptist and St.Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary are patrons of Florence and feature prominently in Florentine art.
The cartoon was referred to by art critic Kenenth Clark in 1939 as the Burlington House cartoon when in the Academy's collection, and this epithet remained. Recent research suggests that it was prepared as an independent work in its own right between 1506-8. Leonardo's biographer writes about him exhibiting a cartoon on his return to Florence and of people, 'young and old. flocking for two days for a sight of it.'

Rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo is explored and the influence both had on the young Raphael.

After completing his David, Michelangelo began work on a round marble relief, known in Italian as a Tondo, of the Virgin and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist. It was commissioned by Taddeo Taddei, a wealthy patron whose family had made their fortune in the wool trade. The work is now known as the Taddei Tondo and is one of the most important examples of its type. The infant John the Baptist startles the Child Jesus with a goldfinch, a symbol of the Passion. Jesus recoils from the bird in his mother's lap, whilst at the same time twisting his head in acceptance of his destiny.

On 25 January 1504 Florence's greatest artists met to consider a suitable location for Michelangelo's sculpture of David. The exhibition centres on the encounter between the three Renaissance titans and the changing role of drawing. Leonardo expressed his scientific ideas through rapid pen and ink drawing.

Michelangelo was primarily a sculptor and sometimes used black chalk in preparatory drawings. Michaelangelo was concerned with the mechanics of the body and rippling, muscles whereas for Leonardo it was the face that was his focus and also movement such as is seen in his drawings of horses.

Raphael was a beautiful painter who copied both Leonardo's and Michelangelo's drawings to inspire his own compositions.
The youthful Raphael arrived seeking to enhance his career and reputation and learn from observing the great masters. The Tondo profoundly influenced Raphael who assimilated aspects of the composition for his Madonna and Child paintings especially the Bridgewater Madonna, belonging to the National Gallery of Scotland. Both works are exhibited together for the first time. Raphael secured the patronage of Taddeo Tandi.

Studies by Leonardo and Michelangelo for their murals commissioned by the Florentine government for the newly constructed council hall in the Palazzo Vecchio are featured. Neither mural was completed but Raphael meticulously copied Leonardo's drawing of the main scene of the Battle of Anghian, displayed as the final exhibit.

Every exhibit is enthralling - not least a minute leather bound notebook of Leonardo's genius musings

Whilst at the Royal Academy do take the chance to have a last free gaze at Lord Leighton's iconic sleeping beauty, the gorgeously flamboyant 'Flaming June'. It returns to Puerta Rico's Museo de Arte de Ponce after 12th January.

Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, circa 1509
Until 16 February 2025
Tuesday -Sunday 10-6.0pm, Friday until 9.0pm
Tickets £19-21

For more information see: www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/michelangelo-leonardo-raphael