Leonardo and The Cave
Writing Assignment Nov 14, 2023:
Follow up one of the threads or concepts of the cavern/void that you feel connected to or associated with. Working with reference to an artwork or artworks write a story or fable that explores an aspect of art making or viewing.
Leonardo and The Cave
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The Virgin of the Rocks, Leonardo da Vinci (1483–1486), Oil on panel (transferred to canvas),
199 cm × 122
cm (78.3 in × 48.0 in), Louvre, Paris.
Around the age of 28 years Leonardo da Vinci went hiking
alone in Tuscan bills near Florence. On this hike he came across a cave…
"Having wandered some distance among gloomy rocks, I
came to the mouth of a great cavern, in front of which I stood some time,
astonished," he recalled. "Bending back and forth, I tried to see
whether I could discover anything inside, but the darkness within prevented
that. Suddenly there arose in me two contrary emotions, fear and desire—fear of
the threatening dark cave, desire to see whether there were any marvellous
thing within."
Leonardo’s curiosity and desire for knowledge won and he
entered the dark cavern following the mysterious voice that drew him in.
For approximately two years after he entered that cave he
seems to have been “missing”, entries in his diary stopped, and when he
reappeared it was with ideas and knowledge that were well ahead of his time.
He didn’t reveal much of his adventures but he did described
finding a fossilized whale in the walls of the cave, as well as layers of
fossilized shells.
"Oh mighty and once-living instrument of nature,"
he wrote, "your vast strength was to no avail."
"You lashed with swift, branching fins and forked tail,
creating in the sea sudden tempests that buffeted and submerged ships."
Philosophically, he went on. "Oh time, swift despoiler
of all things, how many kings, how many nations hast thou undone, and how many
changes of states and of circumstances have happened since this wondrous fish
perished.
He contemplated the dangers inherent in nature, feeling
existential dread at its destructive power.
"The rivers will be deprived of their waters, the earth
will no longer put forth her greenery; the fields will no more be decked with
waving corn; all the animals, finding no fresh grass for pasture, will
die," he wrote. "In this way the fertile and fruitful earth will be
forced to end with the element of fire; and then its surface will be left burnt
up to cinder and this will be the end of all earthly nature."
On his return from the cave his illustrations in his
notebooks included maps and strange figures with elongated skulls and flat
faces. Did he encounter these beings in the cave and did they impart
information to him? Did they teach him about technology which he then went on
to document and create? There are theories that he did, indeed, encounter
either a subterranean race or extra-terrestrials while he was unaccounted for,
for those two years.
Map of the
Valdichiana, Leonardo da Vinci (c.1503-4).
Royal
Collection Trust /© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2016.
The countryside and the cavern continued to influence his work throughout his life. In his paintings we can see this clearly. His renderings of rock formations are extremely accurate geologically.
Leonardo’s placing of the Virgin Mary within a rocky grotto
in “The Virgin of the Rocks” (Paris, Louvre, 1483) was unusual, and the fact
that he started the painting within three years of writing about his cave
explorations is telling.
Other works include rock and sedimentary formations such as the
Adoration of the Magi (Florence, Uffizi, c. 1480), Saint Jerome (Vatican
Museums, c. 1482) and even the Mona Lisa (Paris, Louvre, 1503) exhibits
geological details in the background.
Leonardo’s understanding of palaeontology and geology far
outweighed his contemporaries and he showed it in his art. This knowledge,
gained in his cave adventure led him on to produce many “marvellous things.”
And much is documented in his manuscripts and notebooks, although more is
missing than is known of.
References:
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiumelatte_Cave
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1080&context=biofac
https://www.bookbrowse.com/excerpts/index.cfm/book_number/3676/page_number/6/leonardo-da-vinci#excerpt
and… Ancient Aliens.
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