Sunday 18 February 2024

Leonardo Da Vinci’s, A cloudburst ...

1st Sunday of Lent

Leonardo Da Vinci’s, A cloudburst of material possessions c1506 -12 
Black chalk pen and ink

"From thunderclouds a deluge of objects fall to earth – rakes, ladders, lanterns, bagpipes, shears, spectacles and so on – and written below  is the lament 'Oh human misery, how many things you must serve for money.'

What might be a straightforward allegory of human materialism is complicated by a lion prowling in the clouds at top left, its head in two positions and the note above, ‘on this side Adam, on that, Eve’. If related to the drawing, the note might suggest the labours that mankind was subjectedto after the Fall, contrasted with the unencumbered nobility of the lion"

Text adapted from Leonardo da Vinci: A life in drawing, Martin Clayton, 2018



I was only able to see the second face (Eve, on the right of the lion), by superimposing yellow Brolly fabric on this section.

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