Ancient Greece was known for its classical philosophy and artistic values, but that period of grand creativity died. A subsequent period of darkness was followed fortunately by a "renaissance," meaning rebirth. It was during the Age of Renaissance that there was a new birth of scientific, artistic, and religious understanding. The prime icon of the period was Leonardo da Vinci. This brief blog essay discusses the facial appearance of Leonardo, even though little is known.
The topic of facial appearance has current relevance, because of a new report of a partially hidden face on one of the pages of Leonardo's manuscript known as the "Codex on the Flight of Birds." The face may be that of Leonardo.
The discovery of the face was formally announced by an Italian science journalist, Piero Angela. The restoration of the face involved digital and forensic procedures, which are documented in the short video below:
Although Piero made the announcement (see Watoday.com and Dailymail.co.uk), there is some dispute as to who has priority over the discovery (see: Prnewswire.com and Leonardo3.net). Such disputes are not entirely uncommon in academics and journalism.
In the video below, respected face illustrator Siegfried Woldhek gives a short 5 minute lecture on the topic of the true facial appearance of Leonardo. This lecture was given before the most recent portrait discovery.
The video below is an interview in German in which Woldhek gives his reactions to the newfound portrait:
For Woldhek's artistic conception of Leonardo, see the Woldhek Gallary.
As argued by Woldhek, it is widely believed that a teenaged Leonardo served as a model for Verrocchio's statue of David (see "Verrocchio's workshop"). Leonardo trained in Verrocchio's art studio.
Some, such as Woldhek, have argued that Leonardo used himself as a model in the famous "Portrait of a Young Man." Although the appearance is definitely similar to the faces shown above, there is a small problem. The young man is holding a piece of music as if he were a musician. Some scholars believe the painting is of Franchino Guffurio, a well known composer during the time of Leonardo.
As argued by Woldhek, it is possible that Leonardo served as the model for his most famous Vitruvian man.
The self-portrait below is the only picture of Leonardo that is without much controversy.
In the following video segment, Angela takes the new portrait, ages it, and then compares it with the portrait above.
For additional information about possible Leonardo portraits, see the blog "LEONARDO CODIGO ABIERTO" by Carlos Sánchez-Montaña.
For a brief treatment of Leonardo's religious beliefs, see: BeliefNet.
Copyright 2008 S.Faux (Email: foxgoku54 [at] gmail [d0t] c0m; URL: http://mormoninsights.blogspot.com). Readers may distribute this post for noncommercial purposes provided such distributing is of the entire post, including author's copyright and contact information. All other rights reserved.
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