The adoration of the child with two angels in a landscape

The adoration of the child with two angels in a landscape
around 1473–1478
Tempera on wood
46.9 x 60.3 cm
Institute of Arts , Detroit

The Adoration of the Child with Two Angels in a Landscape is an unfinished painting from the immediate circle of Andrea del Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinci .

history

The picture, which at first glance does not look very aesthetic, is a very interesting work from an art-historical point of view. It shows a wide, hilly landscape in which Mary kneels on the ground in front of a collapsed wall and adores the Christ Child, who is held on his lap by an angel sitting on the ground in front of her. Another angel kneels at his side, puts one arm around the shoulders of the seated angel and holds a flower in the other hand. The child himself holds a bird in his hand. While most of the elements of the picture are largely finished, only the basic drawing of Maria can be seen.

The picture was in a Florentine collection for many years before it passed into the possession of the Roman nobility through marriage in the 17th century . It was acquired from an Italian private collection in 1957 by Rudolf Heinemann and the art dealer M Knoedler & Co and handed over to the New York restorer William Suhr. At this point in time, the figure of Mary was in a fully painted state, which, however, did not correspond to the time the picture was taken. Since the signature was found completely intact under Mary, painted at least forty years later, it was decided to remove the later overpainting at this point. In order to weaken the stark contrast between Mary and the rest of the picture, the figure of Mary was covered with a delicate gold tone. Furthermore, a crack in the middle of the picture was repaired.

The signing of Maria resembles Verrocchio's drawings, which is why it was assumed at the time that the picture in his system was started by him and then continued by students, but not finished. Similar to the baptism of Christ in the Uffizi in Florence, the participation of the young Leonardo was considered possible. Especially in the two angels and in the landscape one believed to recognize his hand. This thesis was supported by Roberto Longhi , who recognized that the landscape was closely related to Leonardo's landscape drawing from 1473, by Stefano Bottari , who considered the panel to be one of the very few examples from Leonardo's youth in which one can really recognize his handwriting, and by Antonio Morassi , who believed that the panel was started by Verrocchio and then continued by Leonardo. They met with approval from the Leonardo experts Wilhelm Suida and Wilhelm Reinhold Valentiner , who also saw a youthful work by Leonardo in the picture. Kenneth Clark , who thought it was important because it conveyed knowledge about the division of labor in the Verrocchio workshop at the time when Leonardo and Lorenzo di Credi were working there, was somewhat more reserved .

Such expertise prompted the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1957 to ask 28 donors for financial help for the acquisition of the picture, which was then acquired from Knoedler & Co. for $ 250,000. To justify this high buzzer for such an unappealing picture, the then museum director Edgar P. Richardson wrote the work The Adoration with two Angels by Andrea del Verocchio and Leonardo da Vinci in which all the proponents of extensive authorship by Leonardo had their say. The reason why the picture was not completed even then was that Leonardo, following the Storza's call, left Florence and the work remained unfinished in the Verrocchio workshop. There it was acquired by an unknown collector, who then had it finished by a middle-class painter. The doubters, who considered the picture to be a bumbling work in composition and execution, were not taken into account. These put the main focus on the badly painted Christ Child, which was not mentioned at all by the Leonardo supporters. Nevertheless, in the period that followed, the opinion prevailed that at least some important parts of the picture had been painted by Leonardo.

This view lasted until 1994, when the picture was first proposed as a completely autograph work by Verrocchio. In the same year this ascription was rejected and the execution was assigned to a successor who was not Leonardo. At the same time, the thesis that several painters painted on the picture was rejected. In 1997, Ambrogio de Predis , a successor to Leonardo, was proposed as the painter of the picture and thus a later date of creation. The occasional opinion that it could be a pastiche was rejected. In 2003 a creation in the circle of Domenico Ghirlandaio was considered and Bastiano Mainardi was suggested as a possible painter. The museum itself currently has the picture with inventory number 57.37 as a work from the school of Leonardo das Vinci.

literature

• Edgar P. Richardson: The Adoration with two Angels by Andrea del Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinci , The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit 1957
• Edgar P. Richardson: A rare panel by Verrocchio and Leonardo . In: Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts , Vol. 36, Detroit 1957
• Frirtz Neugass: A controversial new acquisition by the museum in Detroit , Weltkunst 13/1957
• Wilhelm R. Valentiner: A Newly Discovered Leonardo , Art Quarterly, 1957
• Edgar P. Richardson: Treasures from the Detroit Institute of Arts , Detroit, 1966
• Maria Pomilio / Angela Ottino Della Chiesa: Classics of Art - Leonardo da Vinci , 1967, Kunstkreis Luzern - Freudenstadt - Vienna
• Günter Passavant: Verrocchio, sculptures, paintings, drawings , London, 1969
• David Alan Brown: Leonardo da Vinci: Origins of a Genius , New Haven, 1998

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.