Andrew Lambirth finds paintings at the National Gallery’s Leonardo exhibition of such a singular and pure beauty as to take the breath away
The great world is humming with an event of international importance at the National Gallery: the largest number of Leonardo da Vinci’s surviving paintings ever gathered together. To see anything by this extraordinary Renaissance genius is worth turning aside for, but in recent years there have been a fair few exhibitions, principally at the V&A in 2006, at the Royal Collection in 2003, and a provincial touring show in 2002. Admittedly, these displays have consisted of Leonardo’s drawings, but the prospective visitor should be aware that this new show at the NG is also largely composed of drawings.
The press release speaks of ‘60 paintings and drawings by the great artist, as well as pictures by some of his closest collaborators’. There are actually nine paintings by Leonardo and more than 50 of his drawings (including 33 lent from the Royal Collection), together with a dozen paintings by his followers and sundry sketches.
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