164 rediscovering Saint Anne
The Pictorial Execution: an Incessant Quest for Perfection that Led to Incompletion 165
the two largest copies (cats. 50 and 52) contained figures of the same proportions as those in the original, although the three panels are of slightly different height. The Los Angeles version (cat. 50), which is 178.5 cm in height, is the tallest of the panels and the upper and lower edges are bare, which proves that it has retained its original dimensions. Indeed, the other two copies were no doubt originally of a similar height. The painting held in the private collection (cat. 52) measures 160 cm, but it has obviously been trimmed by at least 6 to 7 cm on its lower edge. Moreover, three copies of this painting (figs. 133 to 135) measure around 180 cm in height, which is similar to that of the American painting. The Louvre panel measures 168.5 cm, but, in the oldest inventory of the royal collection compiled by Charles Le Brun, the height is recorded as being 176 cm. It is therefore highly likely that the original, like its copies, was of a similar size, around 178 cm in height and around 114–15 cm in width, and that it was trimmed during the eighteenth century.3 Salai or Melzi? Even though the most admirable copies (cats. 50, 52, and 56) do not capture the extraordinary and indeed inimitable pictorial quality of the original, they are nevertheless very finely worked and were often executed using techniques and materials employed by the master. In the large paintings from Los Angeles and the private collection, the drapery of the Virgin’s blue mantle has been prepared with an underlayer of red lake and there is abundant use of lapis lazuli, as in the original. The presence of this precious and expensive pigment is a measure of the status of these very fine works, which may have been commissioned from Leonardo himself and, although they were produced by his workshop, they bore the stamp of his prestige. The inventory compiled after the death of Salai, who was one of Leonardo’s favorite pupils, mentions a copy that was probably similar—even though it is not one of the two large versions (cats. 50 and 52)— which was estimated to be worth the considerable sum of 100 écus (cat. 96). The work’s value may have been based in part on the cost of the materials, and most certainly the reputation of the master, who had conceived its composition. Moreover, in the absence of the original, which was taken by Leonardo to France in 1516, these works—and particularly the Hammer Museum painting, which had been exhibited in the Church of Santa Maria presso San Celso in Milan 1. The other later copies were not produced by members of Leonardo’s workshop. 2. See the texts by Sue Ann Chui and Alan Phenix in entry no. 50, p. 167, the text by Bruno Mottin in entry no. 52, p. 174, and that of Cecilia Frosinini in
entry no. 56, p. 191. 3. The widths of the two copies are 114 and 115 cm respectively; the original measures 113 cm, but its edges were planed down during the enlargement process, so it is difficult to determine the exact
since at least 1635 and has sometimes been considered as an autograph work—became the new models for the numerous copies produced during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (cat. 50 and figs. 121 to 128). Our knowledge of the workshop’s members and its modus operandi during this period is unfortunately too limited for us to be able to attribute these paintings with any certainty. In 1508, Giovanni Giacomo di Pietro Caprotti da Oreno, known as Salai, was no doubt the longest serving apprentice. Born around 1480, he had been entrusted at the age of ten to Leonardo,4 in whose workshop he learned the art of painting. In 1505, he was sufficiently experienced to be sent by his master to advise the famous Perugino on the painting that he was then executing for Isabella d’Este, and in which he even corrected certain details.5 The other conspicuous figure in the workshop was Francesco Melzi, whom the artist met in Milan in 1506–07. Melzi was fifteen at the time and joined Leonardo’s household when the master returned to Milan in the summer of 1508. Unfortunately, there is still little known about these two painters’ artistic activities. Only one work—a Christ signed and dated 1511, which was sold at auction in 2007 (fig. 112)—is known to be an autograph work by Salai, who died in 1524. The rest of his “oeuvre” only consists of works that have in the past been attributed to him but without any real justification.6 Melzi is the author of the very fine Vertumnus and Pomona in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (fig. 35), which still bore his signature in Greek letters in the eighteenth century, according to an account by Mariette when the painting was in the Saint-Simon Collection,7 and which in fact appears to date from Leonardo’s second Milanese period (see cat. 45). Also attributed to him is the Hermitage Flora, which does in fact bear certain similarities to the Berlin painting. However, this information does not provide us with sufficient reference points to establish the attribution— which remains difficult—of the copies, which endeavored to imitate the style of the original as closely as possible. This exhibition has at least enabled us to identify certain similarities in the pictorial execution of the works, particularly between the Los Angeles painting and Mona Lisa of the Prado Museum (cat. 77). It would be necessary to conduct a systematic study of the workshop versions of the master’s other compositions, in order to better categorize them and make more detailed comparisons with the extremely rare originals. VD original dimensions, which were probably close to 114–15 cm. 4. Institut de France, Paris, Manuscript C, fol. 15 v. 5. Letter from Luigi Ciocca to Isabella d’Este dated January 22, 1505, Mantua, Archivio Gonzaga, serie E,
busta 1105, n. 343. This work was the Combat of Love and Chastity, painted by Perugino for Isabella d’Este’s studiolo; it is now held in the Musée du Louvre. 6. See Shell 1998. 7. Mariette 1856, pp. 378–79.
Fig. 112 Salai, Christ, Sotheby’s, New York, January 25, 2007, no. 34, present location unknown.