Giorgio Vasari wrote of Leonardo da Vinci: "It is clearly evident that because of Leonardo's understanding of art, he began many projects but never finished any of them, feeling that his hand could not reach artistic perfection in the works he conceived, since he envisioned such subtle, marvelous, and difficult problems that his hands, while extremely skillful, were incapable of ever realizing them."¹

Of the many unfinished canvases begun by Leonardo, The Adoration of the Magi is surely one of the most ambitious, and remains impressive even in its unfinished state. Two sketches -- one, a perspectival study for the background, and the other, a figural and/or compositional study for the foreground -- give us an opportunity to follow Leonardo's thoughts and decisions as he the immensely complicated composition of a monumental altarpiece. We can only imagine what awe the finished product, with Leonardo's characteristic subtle colors and deep shadows in oil, would have drawn from the viewer.

For this painting, a contract has survived which allows us to date the work to 1481-1482. Leonardo was commissioned by a saddle-maker who wanted to give an altarpiece to the Monastery of S. Donato a Scopeto, just outside of Florence. The contract stipulated not only that the work was to be finished within a period of 24-30 months, but also, strangely, that Leonardo finance the dowry of the saddle-maker's granddaughter.

We have further documentation that shows that poor Leonardo could not pay the dowry. Nor, it seems, could Leonardo finish the piece. Both situations seem out of his control, as he was called to Milan to work for its Duke, Ludovico Sforza, in 1482 -- an advantageous offer one did not refuse.

Still, although the monks and the saddle-maker were probably not pleased with this turn of events, there is no doubt that Leonardo left them -- and us -- an exploration of the process and technique of a Renaissance master. Although Leonardo scholar Kenneth Clark calls the figural study a "relatively feeble drawing," he also notes that it is "as if Leonardo was thinking aloud"² in the work. Perhaps the latter comment is the best way to view this sketch, likely made early in the stages of Leonardo's planning. It is easy to imagine how many sketches like this must have existed: quick, looping designs to designate form and pull the general ideas and shapes of the composition into being. Another scholar, Francoise Viatte, notes that, at this point, the composition seems to still be in two relatively unconnected parts: the figures in the foreground and the ruins in the background.³ Those ruins are painstakingly created in perfect linear perspective in the first sketch, which, due to the care Leonardo clearly took in drawing it, Viatte suggests is a later preparatory sketch. Focusing almost completely on the ancient ruins in the background, Leonardo creates what Clark calls the first truly scientific exploration of the artist's career.

In the final, unfinished canvas -- little more than a drawing itself, but with an undeniable power all the same -- the sketches seem to blur together, and thus come into focus. Leonardo subtly changed the painstakingly created perspective of the ruins: a testament, Clark says, to his dedication to making his works as perfect as possible, regardless of how much work might be involved. Surely Vasari, if we recall the quote above, would agree with Clark's assessment. With both background and foreground together, the composition shows a strong connection and contrast between the two: the foreground emphasizes the devotional aspect around the Virgin and Child, while the background, with its ancient temples (and mysterious battle scene) seems pagan. Kemp explains that these themes had precedents in Renaissance Adoration scenes, in which the pagan ruins contrast with the Christian foreground to show symbolically "the fall of the old order and the birth of the new."⁴ 

As is characteristic, Leonardo depicts a theme in a new, powerful type of altarpiece -- even if we can only see its underpainting.

 

Notes

1. Giorgio Vasari, "The Life of Leonardo da Vinci, Florentine Painter and Sculptor," The Lives of the Artists, trans. Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 286-87. 
2. Kenneth Clark, Leonardo da Vinci, rev. Martin Kemp (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 74. 
3. Francoise Viatte, "The Adoration of the Magi," Leonardo da Vinci: Master Draftsman, Ed. Carmen C. Bambach (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 316. 
4. Martin Kemp, Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981), 72.