National Gallery Page #7

Quite a gruesome story.

But quite moving, as well.

The other guy escapes.

No mention of woodcutters.

Totally irrelevant.

Why do you think he put them in?

And they take up so much space.

The woodcutters and what they're involved

with, in other words, the wood,

take up most of the painting.

Why did he do that? Yeah?

Maybe because it gives the painting

a little more character?

Definitely gives the painting

more character. It totally does.

Think about this. A tragic event,

perhaps made more tragic

if there are people around

who don't recognize what's going on.

Who don't see it as a tragedy.

I'm trying to think of an example. I wonder

if you might know an example, I don't know.

But there's something... It happens a lot

in plays by Shakespeare, for example.

There are people who don't know

what's happening,

and they go, "What's happening

over there?"

There's a lovely painting,

which is not actually in this gallery,

but it's a painting of the fall of Icarus.

Icarus was the one who made the 'wings...

Do you know it?

He made wings of wax,

flew too close to the sun.

Fantastic painting,

where almost all of the painting

is people not noticing what's going on,

people ploughing the fields

and doing lots of other things,

while in the background,

he plunks into the ocean and dies.

There's a famous poem about that

by Auden, which is a really good poem

about how people don't really notice

these things happening.

I think these woodcutters are partly there

to make it even more tragic,

because they just keep going

on and on and on.

It's amazing, isn't it,

how it adds a sense of narrative

as soon as there's an object,

and this is what this pole...

I'm seeing all sorts of paintings

in the gallery where there's sort of...

Suddenly, there might be some sort

of story... woven into this pose.

We can't help ourselves but add narrative

when we're dealing with the human body.

And if you want to include

any elements from the room,

thinking about vertical lines behind,

or horizontal lines,

finding lines of connection.

So try and constantly look

at the relationship

between the head and the shoulder girdle,

between the shoulder girdle

and the pelvis.

Be brave and add that vertical line

to contrast the curves of the body.

Now that we're slowing down,

and really looking,

so start to move more quickly

around the body,

making marks in sort

of continuous movement

as you... as you work around it

with your eyes.

Leave a leg, move back to a shoulder.

Go up to the top of the head.

Move very freely around, so you get

a sense of how this pose is working.

This hand should be big.

- Cos it's going to hide that forearm.

- It should be... Yes.

Yeah, cos it's... the gap between it...

The gap between the son of nipple

and first knuckle of the hand,

- if you can sort of draw that gap...

- Mm.

- Then you'll be seeing... As you move...

- That's that line there, right?

- Ah.

- That's that line.

- That's the line of the crease in her elbow.

- Yeah.

But I'm thinking about the actual bit of air

between breast and... and fist.

- Mm. Yeah. That space is... that gap.

- Yeah. Yeah.

So trying to sort of measure

that space, really,

- and place the hand so that it...

- Mm.

It's like bookending, isn't it,

the space in the middle?

- Mm.

- If that makes sense.

- Easier said than done.

- Yeah! Get her hand in!

- I think... I'm not sure...

- If you're wrestling with it,

just draw it a few times

on another piece of paper,

and then come back.

Think about how you want

to use your pencil.

You can work in cross-hatching

to build up tone,

you can start to smudge chalk

if you want to think about light and dark.

If you're using the chalks,

you might want to switch.

If you've been using the black chalk,

maybe explore the red chalk as well,

so you get the much softer mark

with the red chalk.

Black chalk's slightly more

sort of bound together.

See if that changes the way that you draw.

Just have another 30 seconds

on this drawing.

So if you're working your way

around the figure,

just see if you want to, in very brief strokes,

complete this pose.

...from yesterday!

So good!

Reception. Does that mean...

No. He's just gone to check.

See how many we have left.

Very beautiful.

What a blessing.

Maybe a kind gesture.

More awakening.

Awakening gesture.

Even while the exhibition's been open,

Even while the exhibition's been open,

have there been insights that you've been

getting into the work of Leonardo?

One of the things that you do

as you start working on an exhibition

is to think about what

the whole narrative will be.

But you're also cataloguing

each work individually,

so at a certain point,

it becomes a mosaic, perhaps,

rather than a seamless narrative.

And, obviously, that remains the case

to some degree.

But at the same time, you are beginning

to see these works together,

you're beginning to be able to appreciate

what makes them very special

as a kind of viewing experience.

And I suppose

what I've been struck about...

Well, I suppose what I've been struck by,

over and over again,

is this quality within these works,

whereby the paintings show figures

that are incredibly present,

incredibly vital, and yet extraordinarily

remote and other, as if they...

And that's something that, for me,

is very much a unifying factor.

So I suppose what I've been doing

is seeing the works together,

thinking about what makes them

a complete oeuvre by a single artist,

what makes them Leonardo.

And it's really, I suppose,

I've been struck, over and over again,

by the quality of thought allied

with a kind of pitch of emotion

and an intensity of craft,

and it's that, really, that seeing the pictures

together has made me understand

about this extraordinary artist.

And have there been any insights,

anything you've learned that surprised you,

particularly since the work

has been gathered here?

What I've been amazed by

is how profound and layered and endless

the viewing experience is with Leonardo.

How you always feel that this is an artist

who goes on giving with each of the works.

And in fact, one of the ways I think

you can distinguish a Leonardo painting

from one by a member of his workshop

is that... is this process

of endless revelation,

whereby it's almost as if sort of

onion layers are being peeled away,

and yet you never, ever

quite get to the core.

Leonardo's capacity to paint the invisible,

just out of reach, is really extraordinary,

and that's been the revelation,

but it's not about, you know,

who painted what,

or... or anything of that kind,

it's really about the personality of the artist.

I think, for what it's worth, that it's

this spiritual quality in Leonardo's work

that has raised this exhibition

to the event it's been,

in the sense that it's not

just about the name,

it's about something to do

with the way in which

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes