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Dear ,
This is the third issue of my eight-part series that I'm callingUnlocking Eight Mysteries of Painting.
Why is it that of all the paintings that have been done depicting the Last Supper, Leonardo's is the one that remains most masterful? It's especially thought-provoking considering that so much of the painting fell apart within a short time
after it was finished.
Detail of the Christ image from Leonardo's Last Supper
Close up of paint deterioation of the Christ's
clothing.
The patrons who commissioned Leonardo wanted the image as decoration in the monks' dining hall (refectory) to remind them during their meals of the supper Jesus had with his disciples just prior to his crucifixion. But Leonardo's real interest was about how to show
those images as a relationship of thirteen people, twelve whose inner thoughts and ambitions centered on one among them. He was not interested in making a decoration.
MYSTERY THREE: SEEING BEYOND THE IMAGE
One thing all master artists have in common is the curiosity that wants to see beyond the image. Leonardo was constantly asking "What is the image doing?" That is just one way of seeing beyond the image.
Let's explore just that.
What is this fox doing in the image below? Looking outward, yes, but think about it another way. On that two-dimensional surface where the image exists, what are the image and its surroundings doing
two-dimensionally? When we answer that, we will have one clue as to how we painters might give life to a painting of this fox that conveys what is going on with him.
What are some doing words do you know that tell us what is happening here two-dimensionally? Rather than try to think of them, let's look again at the fox and his surroundings and find them. Better still, what
kinds of marks can we make to show them?
What are those marks doing? Are you thinking "curving"? That's right, and in which direction are they curving? What does that curving convey?
When we use marks such as these to follow what parts of the image are doing, we are going beyond the image and finding its gesture. That gesture is part of what gives it intrigue, part
of what makes us curious about what the fox is looking at.
Now, look at this restored version of Leonardo's Last Supper and find the kinds of gestures that describe what the images are doing?
(Click on the image for a larger version.)
Keep tuning in with me right here throughout the rest of this year as we continue to explore these visual wonders!
Enjoy a visually moving weekend!
Happy Painting,
Dianne
dianne@diannemize.com
You can access the archive of all my newsletters at anytime by going HERE.
