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The incredible strength of Leonardo da Vinci lies of course in his immense talent and sublime intelligence, but it goes even further. He understood the eternal relationship between the infinitely small and the infinitely large. When he painted a leaf, he made it vibrate like a star lost in the depths of the galaxy. He sought the secret of the living in his advanced studies and he had by his art revealed the essence of the soul.
His works are fascinating at all times because they have captured the meaning of the eternal. They breathe the invisible beyond their frozen matter in time.
Each of the faces painted by Leonardo da Vinci is never quite the same and yet it is never different. His looks, his light smiles, his gestures wrapped in the palpable flesh of their clothes, portray the great lineage of humanity in its deep divinity.
When Leonardo draws a tree in the blood, he plunges his pen to the very blood of the primordial source; the rustle of his leaves sings the origin of the world without end or beginning. Leonardo da Vinci had this perception beyond the visible that breathes that nothing exhausts in its immensity. His painting is more than inspired.
He knew by his art to master the techniques to better overcome them. His work, even though it consists of portraits, faces and bodies borrowed from the Catholic religion, has gone beyond the stage of the humanized icon to reach a pure spirituality.
Léonard de Vinci, Portrait d’une dame de la cour de Milan, dit à tort La Belle Ferronnière, vers1490-1497. Huile sur bois (noyer). H. 63,5 ; L. 44,5 cm.
Paris, musée du Louvre, département des
Peintures, inv. 778 © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Michel Urtado