Learning from Leonardo : the end of the journey

Fascinating lecture by the curator of the Leonardo exhibition, Luke Syson, at the National Gallery looking at what he had learnt from living with the pictures in the exhibition over the last few months.

In particular he talked about what he had learnt about the studio set up and processes. He discussed how new information which had appeared from a copy of the Mona Lisa in Madrid had supported up his idea that often the pictures where not so much copies as a work by a studio assistant painted alongside Leonardo as he produced the original. This is based on the idea that each picture shows the same changes in the under drawings.

He talked about a later pictures which were produced by two of Leonardo’s students which showed that it was not unusual for two artists to work on the same picture.

This was a lovely way to round of an exciting exhibition and very interesting to see that the curator had continued to learn about the works during the show by looking at them and sharing ideas.

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