Leonardo da Vinci Madonna Benoit message. "Madonna with a Flower (Benois Madonna)." Leonardo da Vinci. Henri Matisse. Dance

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Madonna Benois" or "Madonna with a Flower" (c. 1478-1480) Madonna BenoisCanvas (translated from wood), Oil. 48 × 31.5 cm State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

The artistic heritage of Leonardo da Vinci is quantitatively very small. He created few works, and even fewer of them have reached us. It has been suggested that his fascination with the natural sciences and engineering interfered with Leonardo's prolific artistic output. However, an anonymous biographer, his contemporary, indicates that Leonardo “had the most excellent ideas, but did not create many things in paint, because, as they say, he was never satisfied with himself”. This is confirmed by Vasari, according to whom the obstacles lay in Leonardo’s very soul - “the greatest and most extraordinary... it was she who prompted him to seek superiority over superiority and perfection over perfection, so that every work of his was slowed down by an excess of desires.”

A young mother, playing with her son, hands him a cruciferous flower. The traditional symbol of the crucifixion is perceived as an innocent toy, towards which the baby Jesus clumsily reaches out, causing the young Madonna to smile.

Already the first Florentine period of Leonardo’s activity, after finishing his studies with Verrocchio, was marked by his attempts to demonstrate his talents in many fields: architectural drawings, a design for a canal connecting Pisa with Florence, drawings of mills, fulling machines and projectiles driven by the power of water. His small painting dates back to the same period "Madonna with a Flower", one of the pearls of our Hermitage.

When Leonardo wrote it, he was twenty-six years old. By this time, the artist had already acquired perfect mastery in the great art of painting, which, as we will see, he placed above all others.

Every time in front of this picture you experience a feeling of trembling admiration: everything here is so simple, so clear and at the same time infinitely complex, like nature itself, like life. In search of the laws of existence, its author was the first artist who learned to create in complete freedom. With soft tints of light and shadow, he reveals the volume of the depicted figures. Man is the crown of nature. The role due to him as the master of life is won in the complete liberation of his energy and will: like that of this young playful mother, almost a child, who with complete ease can turn her head to give us a happy smile, and then again give herself up entirely to the joyful play with a son so strong and already powerful.

Enter the adjacent halls of the Hermitage. In comparison with this Madonna, all the Quattrocento Madonnas* will seem constrained, motionless, as if copied from statues.

Lev Lyubimov. The sky is not too high. The Golden Age of Italian Painting. Publishing house "Children's Literature", Moscow, 1970

*Quattrocento, also quattrocento (Italian quattrocento, “four hundred”, shortened from mille quattrocento - “one thousand four hundred”) is a generally accepted designation for the era of Italian art of the 15th century, correlated with the Early Renaissance period.

It is included in the “major league” of world museum treasures. Its collection includes three million exhibits, and the magnificent collection, begun by Catherine the Great, is being replenished to this day. We offer a short tour of the Hermitage - and 10 paintings that you must see.

Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna and Child (Benois Madonna)

Italy, 1478–1480

The second name comes from the last name of the owners of the painting. Under what circumstances the work of the great Leonardo came to Russia is still unknown. There is a legend that the Benoit family bought it from a traveling circus. The masterpiece was inherited by Maria Sapozhnikova (after marriage - Benoit) from her father. In 1914, the Hermitage acquired this painting from her. True, after the revolution, in the difficult 1920s and 30s, the USSR government almost sold it to the US Treasury Secretary, a passionate collector Andrew Mellon. Art critics who opposed this sale were lucky: the deal fell through.

Raphael. Madonna and Child (Madonna Conestabile)

Italy, around 1504

"Madonna and Child" is one of Raphael's early works. Alexander II purchased this painting in Italy from Count Conestabile for his beloved wife Maria Alexandrovna. In 1870, this gift cost the emperor 310 thousand francs. The sale of Raphael's work outraged the local community, but the Italian government did not have the funds to buy the painting from the owner. The Empress's property was immediately exhibited in the Hermitage building.

Titian. Danae

Italy, around 1554

Catherine II purchased the painting by Titian in 1772. The painting is based on a myth in which King Acrisius was predicted that he would die at the hands of his own grandson, and to avoid this, he imprisoned his daughter Danae. However, the resourceful god Zeus nevertheless penetrated her in the form of a golden torrential rain, after which Danae gave birth to a son, Perseus.

Catherine II was an enlightened monarch, had excellent taste and understood perfectly what exactly should be purchased for her collection. There are several other paintings with a similar plot in the Hermitage. For example, “Danae” by Ferwilt and “Danae” by Rembrandt.

El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos). Apostles Peter and Paul

Spain, between 1587–1592

The painting was donated to the museum in 1911 by Pyotr Durnovo. A few years earlier, Durnovo showed it at an exhibition of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. Then El Greco, who was considered a very mediocre artist, started talking about him as a genius. In this painting, the painter, who was always far from European academicism, turned out to be especially close to the Byzantine icon painting tradition. He tried to convey the spiritual world and characters of the apostles. Paul (in red) is assertive, decisive and self-confident, while Peter, on the contrary, is doubtful and hesitant... It is believed that El Greco captured himself in the image of Paul. But researchers are still arguing about this.

Caravaggio. Young man with a lute

Italy, 1595–1596

Caravaggio is a famous master of the Baroque, who changed the consciousness of several generations of European artists with his “funeral” light. Only one of his works is kept in Russia, which the artist painted in his youth. Caravaggio’s paintings are characterized by a certain drama, and there is it in “The Lute Player.” The notebook depicted on the table contains the popular madrigal melody of Jacob Arkadelt “You know that I love you”, which was popular at that time. And the cracked lute in the hands of the young man is a symbol of unhappy love. The canvas was purchased by Alexander I in 1808.

Peter Paul Rubens. Portrait of the Infanta Isabella's maid

Flanders, mid-1620s

Despite the name, it is believed that this is a portrait of the artist’s daughter, Clara Serena, who died at the age of 12. The painting was created after the girl’s death. The artist subtly depicted the fluffy hair, the delicate skin of the face, and the thoughtful gaze from which it is impossible to take your eyes off. A spiritual and poetic image appears before the viewer.

Catherine II acquired the painting for the Hermitage collection in 1772.

Rembrandt van Rijn. Return of the Prodigal Son

Holland, around 1668

Catherine II bought one of the most famous and recognizable paintings by Rembrandt in 1766. The Gospel parable about the prodigal son worried the artist throughout his life: he created the first drawings and etchings of this plot back in the 1630s and 40s, and began painting the picture in the 1660s. Rembrandt's canvas became an inspiration for other creative personalities. Avant-garde composer Benjamin Britten wrote an opera inspired by this work. And director Andrei Tarkovsky quoted “The Return of the Prodigal Son” in one of the final scenes of Solaris.

Edgar Degas. Place de la Concorde (Viscount Lepic with his daughters crossing the Place de la Concorde)

France, 1875

The painting “Place de la Concorde” was transported to Russia after World War II from Berlin, where it was kept in a private collection. The canvas is interesting because, on the one hand, it is a portrait, and on the other, it is a typical impressionist genre sketch from the life of the city. Degas portrayed his close friend, the aristocrat Louis Lepic, along with his two daughters. The multi-figure portrait still holds many mysteries. It is unknown when and under what circumstances the painting was created. Art historians suggest that the work was painted in 1876 and not to order. The artist never painted another painting like this either before or after. Needing money, he sold the painting to Count Lepik, and no one knew about it until the end of the 19th century. After the fall of Berlin in 1945, the masterpiece, along with other “trophy” works, was sent to the Soviet Union and ended up in the Hermitage.

Henri Matisse. Dance

France, 1909–1910

The painting was created by order of Sergei Shchukin, a famous Russian collector of French painting of the 19th - early 20th centuries. The composition is written on the theme of the golden age of humanity, and therefore it depicts not specific people, but symbolic images. Matisse was inspired by folk dances, which, as is known, contain the ritualism of a pagan action. Matisse embodied the fury of ancient bacchanalia in a combination of pure colors - red, blue and green. As symbols of Man, Heaven and Earth. The painting was transferred to the Hermitage from the Moscow collection of the State Museum of New Western Art in 1948.

Wassily Kandinsky. Composition VI

Germany, 1913

The Hermitage has an entire hall dedicated to the work of Wassily Kandinsky. "Composition VI" was created in Munich in May 1913 - a year before the outbreak of the First World War. The dynamic, bright picture is painted with free and sweeping strokes. Initially, Kandinsky wanted to call it “The Flood”: the abstract canvas was based on a biblical story. However, later the artist abandoned this idea so that the title of the work would not interfere with the viewer’s perception. The canvas came to the museum from the State Museum of New Western Art in 1948.

The material uses illustrations from the official website

"MADONNA LITTA"

There are so many paintings depicting the Virgin Mary that the most famous ones are usually given nicknames. Often the name of one of the previous owners sticks to them, as happened with the “Madonna Litta”.

The painting, painted in the 1490s, remained in Italy for many centuries. Since 1813, it was owned by the Milanese Litta family, whose representatives knew very well how rich Russia was. It was from this family that the Maltese knight Count Giulio Renato Litta came, who was in great favor with Paul I and, having left the order, married his nephewItse Potemkin, becoming a millionaire. However, it has nothing to do with Leonardo’s painting. A quarter of a century after his death, in 1864, Duke Antonio Litta turned toHermitage, recently became a public museum, with an offer to buy several paintings from the family collection.

Angelo Bronzino. Competition between Apollo and Marsyas. 1531-1532. State Hermitage Museum

Da Vinci's painting arrived in Russia in very poor condition; it had to not only be cleaned, but also immediately transferred from board to canvas. So the first one appeared in the Hermitage« Leonardo» .

By the way, here is an example of disputes over attribution: did Leonardo create the “Madonna Litta” himself or with an assistant? Who was this co-author - his student Boltraffio? Or maybe Boltraffio wrote it entirely, based on Leonardo’s sketch?
This issue has not yet been finally resolved, and the Madonna Litta is considered a little dubious.

Leonardo da Vinci had many students and followers - they are called "Leonardeschi". Sometimes they interpreted the master’s legacy in a very strange way. This is how the type of nude “Mona Lisa” appeared. The Hermitage has one of these paintings by an unknown author - “Donna Nuda” (“Naked Woman”). It appeared in Zimny ​​during the reign of Catherine the Great: in 1779, the Empress acquired it as part of the collection of Richard Walpole. In addition to her, the Hermitage also houses a large collection of other Leonardesques, including a copy of the dressed Mona Lisa.

"MADONNA BENOIS"

Previously, the painting was owned by her father, the Astrakhan millionaire merchant Alexander Aleksandrovich Sapozhnikov, and before him, by her grandfather Alexander Petrovich (grandson of Semyon Sapozhnikov, who was hanged in the village of Malykovka by one young lieutenant named Gavrila Derzhavin for participating in the Pugachev riot). The family said that “Madonna” was sold to the Sapozhnikovs by wandering Italian musicians who somehow ended up in Astrakhan.

Vasily Tropinin. Portrait of A.P. Sapozhnikov (grandfather). 1826; portrait of A.A. Sapozhnikov (father), 1856.

But in fact, Sapozhnikov’s grandfather purchased it in 1824 for 1,400 rubles at an auction after the death of the senator, president of the Berg College and director of the Mining School Alexei Korsakov (who apparently brought it from Italy in the 1790s).
Surprisingly, when after Korsakov’s death his collection, which included Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt and other authors, was put up for auction, the Hermitage bought several works (in particular, Millet, Mignard), but neglected this modest “Madonna”.

Having become the owner of the painting after Korsakov’s death, Sapozhnikov began restoring the painting; at his request, it was immediately transferred from board to canvas.

Orest Kiprensky. Portrait of A. Korsakov. 1808. Russian Museum.

The Russian public learned about this painting in 1908, when the court architect Leonty Benois exhibited the work from the collection of his father-in-law, and the chief curator of the Hermitage Ernst Lipgart confirmed the hand of the master. This happened at the “Exhibition of Western European Art from the Collections of Collectors and Antique Dealers of St. Petersburg,” which opened on December 1, 1908 in the halls of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts.

In 1912, the Benois couple decided to sell the painting; the painting was sent abroad, where experts examined it and confirmed its authenticity. London antique dealer Duveen offered 500 thousand francs (about 200 thousand rubles), but in Russia a campaign began for the state to purchase the work. The director of the Hermitage, Count Dmitry Tolstoy, addressed Nicholas II. The Benois couple also wanted “Madonna” to remain in Russia, and eventually lost it to the Hermitage in 1914 for 150 thousand rubles, which were paid in installments.

Leonardo Da Vinci "Madonna of the Flower (Benois Madonna)", 1452-1519

State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

Renaissance

Leonardo da Vinci is the most prominent exponent of the aspirations and ideals of the Renaissance. Leonardo's art revealed features that became characteristic of the High Renaissance: the creation of a generalized image of a person, the construction of a monolithic composition freed from excessive detail; harmonious connection between the individual elements of the picture. The artist's greatest achievement was the use of chiaroscuro to soften contours and to generalize shapes and colors. He did a lot for the development of portrait and landscape painting.

Few works by Leonardo da Vinci have survived to this day; there are less than a dozen of his works in the world. Some remained unfinished, others were completed by his students. The Hermitage collection contains two of his works: “Madonna with a Flower (Benois Madonna)” and “Madonna Litta”.

The small canvas “Madonna with a Flower”, or, as it is often called, “Benois Madonna”, is one of the early works of Leonardo da Vinci. He made a number of sketches and preparatory drawings for this composition. A note from the artist himself has been preserved, from which it is clear that he began painting the picture in October 1478 at the age of twenty-six. Abandoning the traditional appearance of the Madonna, Leonardo depicted her as very young, admiring the Child with a tender smile. The artist’s life observations are undoubtedly felt in the picture. The strictly thought-out composition is simple and extremely generalized. Mother and child are united into an inseparable group. The work uses the rich possibilities of chiaroscuro to sculpt forms, to give them special volume and expressiveness. The subtlety of the light-and-shadow transitions produces an effect characteristic of Leonardo’s works, when the entire image seems shrouded in an airy haze.

The high pictorial merits of the “Benois Madonna” allow us to judge the great skill that the artist possessed in his young years. Leonardo's painting surprises with its apparent lightness, which hides thoughtfulness down to the smallest detail. It is known that the master took a long time to create each of his works, sometimes forcing customers to wait several years for the paintings they ordered.

“Benois Madonna” as a work by Leonardo became known only in our century. At the beginning of the 19th century, it was sold in Astrakhan to one of the Russian collectors by a traveling Italian musician. It then belonged to the Benois family (whose name is preserved in the title of the painting). People first started talking about this work in 1908, when it was exhibited at an exhibition organized by the magazine “Old Years”. Soon the painting was almost unanimously recognized as the work of Leonardo da Vinci, and in 1914 it took pride of place in the Hermitage collection.

"Madonna Benoit" or "Madonna with a Flower"(-) - an early painting by Leonardo da Vinci, presumably left unfinished. In 1914, it was acquired by the Imperial Hermitage from Maria Alexandrovna, the wife of the court architect Leonty Nikolaevich Benois.

The public wanted the painting to remain in Russia. M.A. Benoit wanted the same thing, and therefore lost “Madonna” for 150 thousand rubles. The amount was paid in installments, and the last payments were made after the October Revolution.

M.A. Benois, nee Sapozhnikova, the painting was inherited. There was a legend in the family that the painting was bought from traveling Italian musicians in Astrakhan. There was no other information about the fate of the painting at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1908, E. C. Lipgart wrote:

A few years later he corrected himself:

This version was widely reproduced by other authors. It was often added, without any reference to sources, that the work was once in the collection of Counts Konovnitsyn.

Description

“Madonna with a Flower” is one of the first works of the young Leonardo. The Uffizi Gallery in Florence contains a drawing with the following entry:

One of them is believed to be the "Benois Madonna" and the second the "Madonna of the Carnation" from Munich.

It is likely that both paintings were Leonardo's first works as an independent painter. At that time he was only 26 years old and it had already been six years since he left the workshop of his teacher Andrea Verrocchio. He already had his own style, but, of course, he relied heavily on the experience of the Florentines of the 15th century. There is also no doubt that Leonardo knew about the painting “Madonna and Child”, executed by his teacher in -1470. As a result, the common features of both paintings are the three-quarter rotation of the bodies and the similarity of the images: the youth of both Madonnas and the large heads of the Babies.

Da Vinci places the Madonna and Child in a dimly lit room, where the only source of light is a double window located in the back. Its greenish light cannot dispel the twilight, but at the same time is sufficient to highlight the figure of the Madonna and the young Christ. The main “work” is done by the light pouring from the top left. Thanks to him, the master manages to enliven the picture with the play of chiaroscuro and sculpt the volume of two figures.

In working on the Benois Madonna, Leonardo used an oil painting technique that almost no one in Florence knew before. And although the colors inevitably changed over five centuries, becoming less bright, it is still clearly noticeable that the young Leonardo abandoned the variety of colors traditional for Florence. Instead, he makes extensive use of the capabilities of oil paints to more accurately convey the texture of materials and the nuances of light and shade. The bluish-green color scheme replaced the red light in which the Madonna was usually dressed from the painting. At the same time, an ocher color was chosen for the sleeves and cloak, harmonizing the ratio of cold and warm shades.

In the 19th century, “Madonna with a Flower” was successfully transferred from board to canvas, which is mentioned in the “Register of paintings by Mr. Alexander Petrovich Sapozhnikov, compiled in 1827”:

It is believed that the master who carried out the translation was a former employee of the Imperial Hermitage and a graduate of the Academy of Arts, Evgraf Korotky. It is not clear whether at that time the painting was still in the collection of General Korsakov or had already been purchased by Sapozhnikov.