As I mentioned in the last post, Michelangelo has my love for sculpture. However, when it comes to painting, Leonardo takes the cake. In my personal opinion, he has the absolute perfect balance of lights and darks in his pieces which makes them come to live and capture your attention. He isn't one of the most, if not the most, famous artists in the world for no reason. I'm willing to say the number of those reasons ranges from "a whole lot" all the way to "whole bunches." His only talent wasn't simply painting, but he was an inventor as well. The Thomas Edison of his time he made many blueprints of inventions that have inspired things that we use today, such as the airplane!
Ok now is the part where I talk about his paintings and why I do so love them so very very much. Ahem.
His backgrounds are just as interesting as his foregrounds and subjects. In fact, I find myself looking at the backgrounds just as much as the main subjects, if not MORE to see all of the details and try to figure them out. They are very mysterious, and that is one reason why I adore Leonardo, and this is the mystery that I take from his pictures. "The Virgin of the Rocks" pictured above, is an example of some of the interesting backgrounds Leonardo is capable of. Next, I really enjoy the lights and darks that he uses, tsfumato (I hope I spelled that correctly) and the smokey effect of the pictures like there is a slight fog drifting in or something of that nature. More mystery! Also, he is very good with showing where his light source is coming from, using "The Virgin of the Rocks" as an example again, it is quite obvious where the light is shining from, and the illumination of the figures really brings them to life and gives them a sense of form and weight. (Speaking of how his figures always seem that they have form and weight, I love how his babies always look so rollypolly like they still have those baby rolls.) His figures are also very proportioned and detailed. The clothes are always very elegant and seem like real fabric, and my favorite part is his hair. He's known for those beautiful locks of hair on his figures, and it's no surprise as it looks like he paid intense attention to each strand of hair. Finally, the faces that he does are nothing less than beautiful. One of my favorites is the angel in, yes, that's right, "The Virgin of the Rocks." So elegant and graceful, one would expect nothing less from his angels. This painting is not my favorite of his, though it is far far up there, believe that. It is just so fun to talk about and it has so many good examples of techniques he uses in his other works. Also, it's just a beautiful piece so I really couldn't NOT use it.
Now, I'd have to say one of my favorite pieces by him is his "Annunciation" piece. Have you noticed the pattern of "My favorite piece by them is the Annunciation!"? Well, I have. Probably because I'm fascinated by angels and they always look so pretty in these pictures. Compared to "The Virgin of the Rocks," this piece looks much more faded, and probably is, however you can still see the tsfumato he is so good at. The background is simple, yet I want to look at it to see what is there, because of the interesting shape of the trees and small town or city far off in the distance. The folds in the clothes are nothing less than amazing, and as usual, the Virgin's and even Gabriel's hair look golden in the sunlight. These are just two examples of his paintings, of which all of them have a unique charm to them and I could gush on about for hours, which, no matter how much I would love to, I must stop myself here for today!
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