THE ULTIMATE MASTERPIECE



Having read so much about the Sainte-Anne restoration and looking at the photos in two major art magazines which I subscribe to, obviously I went to see the exhibition at the Louvre. Why obviously? Well, because Marielle would be joining me and looking at this kind of work as well as Artemisia, is I consider part of my «education». Even more so when I am accompanied by a connaisseur.

It took Leonardo da-Vinci over 20 years to complete this painting and was it completed? That is the question even today. It also took nearly 20 years for the Louvre to go ahead and restore the picture. This took 18 months with enough dramas along the line to make the «da-Vinci Code» look dull itself. The curator did a remarkable job of getting all the notes together and acquiring over 30 I think of the preparatory designs. Many, 20, come from the Queen’s collection. I wonder if she ever looks at them? I would every day. They are astounding. Muscles in the arm. The drapes of a coat. A foot where nails seem to need cutting! His first design looks very black and yet everything is there. Any copies you see along the line, look pale next to da-Vinci’s work.



Max Ernst - The Kiss 1927
Sainte-Anne restored
There has been considerable fascination about this masterpiece and so many artists were inspired by it. Raphael and Michelangelo were the only artists I saw that inspired me. By the time you have seen other Italians, the Flemish, the French and even Freud’s analysis of Sainte-Anne (she does look very young to be a mother and a grandmother) I had had my dose. One painting though which I really loved and had seen in the Guggenheim in Venise was Max Ernst’s «The Kiss». Once you have seen as many Saint-Anne’s and preparatory designs, you can also see the influence in Ernst’s work. Something I would not have seen before.

The new colours are so bright with an  intense palette of pigments ranging from lapis lazuli blue to red lacquers and rich grays and browns. The picture can now be seen clearly. Is it unfinished? Did the mountains need added work? Were there details left out that de-Vinci would have added if he had survived? We shall never know. But I wonder how many other of those Masterpieces in the Louvre will need to be restored so not to be shamed by that blazing and rather - for me - overwhelming colour.

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