Leonardo On Display At Buckingham Palace
The Telegraph’s Alastair Sooke says: ‘It is less than three months since the National Gallery’s blockbuster Leonardo exhibition closed — and yet here he is again, the star of a new show at the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace. While the NG focused on Leonardo’s role as court artist to the Milanese ruler Ludovico Sforza during the 1480s and 1490s, this time the emphasis is on his magnificent anatomical studies.
‘One of the conundrums of Leonardo is that what he created was so erratic and diverse. As the National Gallery’s exhibition taught us, when it came to making a painting, he had difficulty finishing the job. During a career spanning half a century, he probably began no more than 20 paintings. Only about 15 survive on which art historians agree are entirely his, and, of these, at least four are incomplete. When it came to making drawings and notes, however, Leonardo couldn’t stop. He began keeping notebooks in his mid-thirties, and covered on average one or two sheets with text and drawings every day until his death aged 67 in 1519.’
