Maiden with a Unicorn
Thursday June 12, 2008
Now here's an Old Master drawing you just have to see. Our Art History site featured this image on 'Wordless Wednesday' - da Vinci's 'A Maiden with a Unicorn. It's amazing! Look how informal it is - the face described in just a few lines. The shadow behind the leg expressed with a dozen casual, hooking pen-strokes. The tree just a scribble. Note the absolute confidence of the drawing - clean, crisp line and perfect proportion. Look closely too at the upper arm - the way the line describes the fabric fold. Love it.
Comments
I love it, too, and was hoping someone would notice the supreme economy and confidence that went in to that sketch. In my opinion every truly brilliant painter is an even better draftsperson, and here is proof.
Economy, that was the word I was looking for. Economy of line.
By way of the exception proving the rule… IMHO Cezanne was a technically poor draftsman, but he was such a mind-blowingly good colorist, he gets away with it. After seeing his exhibition, I didn’t buy the catalogue – the colours on the page looked so weak and lifeless after seeing the Real Thing!
You gotta love da Vinci. He is one of my favorite artists of that time period. His sketches may not have been as detailed or beautiful as many, but his proportions and lines are wonderful. He manages to capture emotion in a sketch. He also always sketches in a way that makes me think he is working mathematically on every detail. Maybe I just love him because he was the first artist my grandfather ever told me about.
How lovely to remember your grandfather telling you about da Vinci. My family weren’t much into art – we had a couple of ugly paintings of Sampans (a night scene and a village in the daytime) brought back from Singapore. I had to laugh when my daughter picked up a very similar painting from a yard sale last year. She loves it.