Christian Symbols in Art

Posted by Suzanne Hill Nov 3, 2006

It describes Leonardo as man with an inner vision centuries before his time who determinedly rose to fame despite harsh and lowly beginnings as a bastard child. The documentary details Leonardo’s passion for engineering, design, and science. Ironically, though he is known for his mastery of oil painting, his main interest seems to lie in building mechanical implements of war and destruction of a scale not even comprehended at his time, like a collosal cannon that takes hundreds of men to operate, a crossbow the size of today's tractor-trailer, or the prototype of a tank he refers to as "a covered chariot." He also is consumed with creating a means for humans to fly.

The movie describes a string of paintings that Leonardo doesn’t finish. He seems most interested in working out the conception, the composition, the details, the setup, even the under-painting, but once he gets started with the painting itself he loses interest. He states in his note book, “To conceive the work is noble; to execute the work is servile.” His intense curiosity and restlessness make him lose interest. For example, his first large painting, “The Adoration of the Magi,” ordered in 1481 as an altarpiece for the Monastery of San Donato a Scopeto, Florence, today hangs in the Uffizi and remains unfinished.

It is his first important work. The painting is remarkable for its powerful composition and ambitious scale. No other painter had conceived of such a painting. There is a turmoil of 66 figures and 11 animals around a serene depiction of the Virgin, the baby, and kneeling kings, giving the painting, in the words of the documentary, “a sense of frenzy, as if the incarnation were an apocalyptic event.” The painting contains many Christian symbols in use at the time, for example, the gold, frankincense, and myrrh brought by the kings symbolize in turn that he was king, that he was God, and that he was man and doomed to death. The stairs of a ruined palace, a symbol commonly used to show the destruction of paganism after the birth of Christ, can be seen in the background. The palm tree in the center represents the Tree of Life. The painting is important because it shows the young artist moving away from the influence of his teacher, Verrochio, and realizing his own talent.

Oh, and may I mention, "Leonardo" is never referred to as "Da Vinci," as Dan Brown would unfortunately have us believe.