of his clients and yet remain silent about the order from the king—particularly given the huge prestige associated with royal commissions. Another group of scholars believes the stemmed directly from Saint Anne Leonardo’s stay at the Servite monastery in Florence in 1501. As we saw, the friars had contracted with Filippino Lippi to paint an altarpiece for their church, the Santissima but when Filippino learned that Leonardo was in town, he graciously Annunziata, withdrew so the friars could contract with Leonardo instead. This also appears to fit with Vasari’s description of the events, although some scholars are uncomfortable with the ambiguity of the last sentence: returned to Florence, where he found that the Servite Friars had entrusted “He to Filippino the painting of the panel for the high altar of the Nunziata; whereupon Leonardo said that he would willingly have done such a work. Filippino, having heard this, like the amiable fellow that he was, retired from the undertaking; and the friars, to the end that Leonardo might paint it, took him into their house, meeting the expenses both of himself and of all his household; and thus he kept them waiting for a long time, but never began anything. In the end, he made a cartoon showing a Madonna and a S. Anne, with a Christ…” This citation is taken from the second edition of Vasari’s of 1568. In the first Lives edition, the text is even more ambiguous: kept them waiting for a long time, but “he never began anything. he made a cartoon showing a Madonna and a And in the meantime S. Anne, with a Christ…” (our italics). The strange juxtaposition would suggest that while the friars were waiting for the altarpiece they had contracted for, Leonardo started something entirely different, simply because the subject occupied his mind. The skeptics further point to archival evidence that the wooden structure ordered for the altarpiece was much larger than the cartoon Leonardo eventually completed. Ergo, the could Saint Anne not have been painted for the Servite friars. We disagree, for the simple reason that nothing in the Renaissance, and certainly not in the world of Leonardo, was ever clear-cut, or black and white. Leonardo’s workshop was not a factory were orders entered on one end and finished products flowed
of his clients and yet remain silent about the order from the king—particularly given the huge prestige associated with royal commissions. Another group of scholars believes the Saint Anne stemmed directly from Leonardo’s stay at the Servite monastery in Florence in 1501. As we saw, the friars had contracted with Filippino Lippi to paint an altarpiece for their church, the Santissima Annunziata, but when Filippino learned that Leonardo was in town, he graciously withdrew so the friars could contract with Leonardo instead. This also appears to fit with Vasari’s description of the events, although some scholars are uncomfortable with the ambiguity of the last sentence: “He returned to Florence, where he found that the Servite Friars had entrusted to Filippino the painting of the panel for the high altar of the Nunziata; whereupon Leonardo said that he would willingly have done such a work. Filippino, having heard this, like the amiable fellow that he was, retired from the undertaking; and the friars, to the end that Leonardo might paint it, took him into their house, meeting the expenses both of himself and of all his household; and thus he kept them waiting for a long time, but never began anything. In the end, he made a cartoon showing a Madonna and a S. Anne, with a Christ…” This citation is taken from the second edition of Vasari’s Lives of 1568. In the first edition, the text is even more ambiguous: “he kept them waiting for a long time, but never began anything. And in the meantime he made a cartoon showing a Madonna and a S. Anne, with a Christ…” (our italics). The strange juxtaposition would suggest that while the friars were waiting for the altarpiece they had contracted for, Leonardo started something entirely different, simply because the subject occupied his mind. The skeptics further point to archival evidence that the wooden structure ordered for the altarpiece was much larger than the cartoon Leonardo eventually completed. Ergo, the Saint Anne could not have been painted for the Servite friars. We disagree, for the simple reason that nothing in the Renaissance, and certainly not in the world of Leonardo, was ever clear-cut, or black and white. Leonardo’s workshop was not a factory were orders entered on one end and finished products flowed
The-Mona-Lisa-Myth_MS_0619-cd-notes.docx