It was a “eureka” moment when a young family member recently showed me his orangutan toy (pictured above). Its extended arms and appearance triggered a thought and recollection of both ape and long arm features in Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Annunciation.
Leonardo’s ape connected to the monkey featured in one of Ismail al-Jazari’s Candle Clocks which I explained in a post almost a year ago.
Detail from Leonardo da Vinci’s Annunciation, Uffizi, Florence
I sensed the orangutan’s long arm was in some way associated with the Virgin Mary’s unusual extended right arm, but at the time could not come up with a satisfactory explanation until a few days ago when I discovered her long arm, often faulted by art critics and historians, was actually inspired by another feature found in Fra Lippi’s Seven Saints painting, proving that the distortion was indeed intentional and DID refer to the long arm of an ape.
Fra Lippi’s Seven Saints, National Gallery, London
While Vasari refers to several of Lippi’s paintings he makes no mention of the Seven Saints panel. Elsewhere in Lippi’s biography Vasari relates an account of the time the painter and a group friends were captured by Barbary pirates.
“Now, chancing to be in the Marches of Ancona, he was disporting himself one day with some of his friends in a little boat on the sea, when they were all captured together by the Moorish galleys that were scouring those parts, and taken to Barbary, where each of them was put in chains and held as a slave; and thus he remained in great misery for eighteen months. But one day, seeing that he was thrown much into contact with his master, there came to him the opportunity and the whim to make a portrait of him; whereupon, taking a piece of dead coal from the fire, with this he portrayed him at full length on a white wall in his Moorish costume. When this was reported by the other slaves to the master (for it appeared a miracle to them all, since drawing and painting were not known in these parts), it brought about his liberation from the chains in which he had been held for so long. Truly glorious was it for this art to have caused one to whom the power of condemnation and punishment was granted by law, to do the very opposite—nay, in place of inflicting pains and death, to consent to show friendliness and grant liberty! ”
This account is generally dismissed by art historians. Louis Gillet (1876-1943) wrote that Vasari’s account of Lippi being seized by Barbary pirates and held captive “is assuredly nothing but a romance”.
But was it? There is evidence in the Seven Saints painting that points to this account, even if it was a romantic notion on the part of Fra Lippi. Leonardo da Vinci was also aware of the story and adapted Lippi’s reference for his Annunciation painting.
The saintly figures shown above – Anthony Abbot and Peter of Verona – are part of Fra Filippo Lippi’s Seven Saints painting (1450-53) housed at the National Gallery, London.
Lippi also applied two other identities to the men – St Jude Thaddeus and himself (right). Pairing is one of several themes in the painting.
I mentioned in a previous post that the painting, and the artist, were a source of inspiration for Leonardo da Vinci’s Annunciation.
One of several features Leonardo adapted from the Seven Saints forms part of the dual figure of St Peter Martyr and Filippo Lippi – the sword and the nimbus.
Detail of St Peter of Verona from Fra Filippo’s Seven Saints painting
The sword represents the weapon used by an assassin hired by a group of Cathars to murder Peter as he was travelling with a companion to Milan. At the inquest following Peter’s death, his wound was described as “caused by the force of the impact of a falchion, whose blade ends in two horns, like the moon.”
Observe how the sword embedded in Peter’s head also appears to dissect the nimbus, to form a crescent shape of the upper half. The two points of the segment can be considered as “horns of a crescent moon”.
Detail of the crescent and sword from Leonardo’s Annunciation
In an earlier post – “I saw the crescent” – I presented a narrative on a similar feature which appears in Leonardo’s Annunciation but, at the time, without knowing the connection to Lippi’s Seven Saints. I pointed out the green crescent shape of the Angel Gabriel’s purse and his waistband shaped as the sheath of a curved scimitar as references to Al-Jazari’s Candle Clock of the Swordsman.
So now Leonardo’s adaption can also be recognised as referring to “a falchion, whose blade ends in two horns, like the moon” – further evidence that Lippi’s Seven Saints was a source of inspiration.
There is another narrative connecting the sword and the nimbus and relates to the second identity applied to the figure of Peter of Verona, that of the artist Fra Filippo Lippi.
This weekend I spent time researching more on Fra Lippi’s Seven Saints, a source used by Leonardo da Vinci for his Annunciation painting, and came across this work by the English artist Henry Holiday (1839-1927) titled Dante and Beatrice. It’s housed at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
Dante and Beatrice, by Henry Holiday, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
“The painting is based on Dante Alighieri’s 1294 autobiographical workLa Vita Nuova which describes his love for Beatrice Portinari. Dante concealed his love by pretending to be attracted to other women. The painting depicts an incident when Beatrice, having heard gossip relating to this, refuses to speak to him. The event is shown as Beatrice (in a white dress) and two other women walk past Dante standing on the Santa Trinita Bridge in Florence. […] Holiday was anxious that the painting should be historically accurate and in 1881 travelled to Florence to carry out research. […] When Holiday died in 1927, he was described as ‘the last Pre-Raphaelite’. Many of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s paintings, including Dante’s Dream, had as their subject the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, and this interest is the likely inspiration for Holiday’s painting.” (Wikipedia)
However, another inspiration was the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. It is said that after Botticelli died in 1510, interest in the artist and his work waned and was virtually forgotten until renewed by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, founded in 1848.
While on his research visit to Florence, Holiday may have had the opportunity to seek out and closely study Botticelli’s paintings housed in the Uffizi Museum. So it should come as no surprise that Botticelli’s influence can be recognised in Holiday’s Dante and Beatrice – none more so than elements of Botticelli’s Primavera, the left half showing the Three Graces and the mythological figure generally identified as Mars. It is Mars who has turned away from the Three Graces, while in Holiday’s painting it is Dante who is ignored by the three women.
Primavera, by Sandro Botticelli, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Compare the detail below of two of the women from both paintings. See how Holiday has matched the tilted head of the woman on the left. Another match is the woman’s hand resting on the shoulder. Then there is the rose paired with the brooch on the woman’s chest.
Matching pairs (above and below) from Primavera and Dante and Beatrice
But the clincher is the barrel placed at the left edge of Holiday’s painting. It’s a shout-out to Botticelli, a nickname given to the artist which means “little barrel”. Holiday adds a final touch by identifying some of the produce in the barrel, spring greens (perhaps lettuces) alongside lemons, and so pointing to the title of Botticelli’s painting, Primavera, translated from Italian as “Spring”. Instead of the oranges depicted in Primavera, Holiday has shown lemons.
Detail of the barrel in Holiday’s Dante and Beatrice painting.
There are other elements of Holiday’s painting which suggest he may also have known of the connection between Botticelli’s Primavera and Fra Filippo Lippi’s Seven Saints.
So if Leonardo da Vinci adapted elements from Fra LIppi’s Seven Saints painting for his own version of the Annunciation, then what source, if any, inspired the composition for Lippi’s saintly lineup?
Seven Saints by Fra Filippo Lippi, National Gallery, London
Mentioned in my previous post, was a comment by Nicholas Flory that the Seven Saints, originally housed in the Palazzo Medici, was possibly a doorway feature of the Medici family library.
A source that confirms the library connection and lends itself as the inspiration for Lippi’s composition is the basilica in Rome’s Forum dedicated to two of the figures featured in Lippi’s painting, saints Cosmas and Damian.
Originally a Roman temple, it was Christianised in 527 by pope Felix IV. The pope was then gifted with an adjacent building, the library of the Forum of Peace (Bibliotheca Pacis), and he amalgamated the two buildings to create a basilica dedicated to saints Cosmas and Damian.
Originally a Roman Temple, now the basilica dedicated to saints Cosimas and Damian.
The dome-shape caps worn by Cosmas and Damian are reminiscent of the dome covering the basilica’s circular vestibule, and the lunette arch of the painting’s frame.
The vault above the basilica’s apse is decorated with a sixth century mosaic depicting three figures either side of the Returning Christ. On the left, pope Felix IV, St Paul and St Damian; on the right, St Peter, St Cosmas and St Theodore – seven figures in total.
The apse of the basilica of Saints Cosimas and Damian
It is this parousia mosaic and the basilica’s library association that was the source of inspiration for Fra Lippi’s Seven Saints composition.
However, Lippi substituted five of the figures to represent saints associated with Florence and branches of the Medici family. The twins Cosmas and Damian were Arab physicians and the Medici name in Italian translates as ‘doctors’.
The seven figures are also a pointer to the seven branches of the Jewish Menorah, looted by the Romans when they destroyed Jerusalem’s Second Temple in AD 70. The Menorah and other Temple treasures were brought back to Rome and displayed in triumph. It is said that the Menorah was exhibited to the public in the Forum of Peace, which later became part of the basilica of Cosmas and Damian.
Rome’s Arch of Titus, constructed in AD 81, was referred to in a medieval guide book to the city as “the arch of the Seven Lamps of Titus and Vespasian”. Titus was the son of Vespasian and the Arch was built to commemorate the victory over the Jewish rebellion in Judaea. At the base of the arch is a relief depicting the Menorah carried in triumph.
Arch of Titus in Rome showing the Menorah
So the seven saints in Fra Lippi’s painting can also be viewed as branches of light that correspond to the learning and light provided by the books in the Medici library, in both a spiritual and secular sense – I.e. the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit*, and the seven Liberal Arts*.
Note the stance and clothing of the central figure of John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence. John was the precursor of Jesus and so the figure represents both John and Jesus, twinned as the two brothers, Cosmas and Damian. The four other figures are also depicted as pairs and were given second identities by Fra Lippi.
* Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord. Seven Liberal Arts: Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy and Music.
• More on Fra Lippi’s Seven Saints in a future post.
This is yet another work by Fra Filippo Lippi which Leonardo da Vinci sourced for producing his painting of the Annunciation. It’s known as the Seven Saints and housed at the National Gallery, along with its companion painting, Lippi’s ‘London’ version of the Annunciation.
Here’s how the National Gallery identifies the seven saints:
“Lippi has used traditional symbols to identify each figure. The group is framed on either side by two saints dressed in the habits (uniform) of the religious orders to which they belonged. On the far left is Saint Francis, founder of the Franciscans in the thirteenth century. His meditation on the suffering of Christ was so profound that he himself developed the wounds of the Crucifixion; here they emit rays of heavenly light. Mirroring him is Saint Peter Martyr, the knife embedded in his skull a reminder of his death.
“The barefoot saint in the centre is Saint John the Baptist. He holds a slender cross, a reference to his prophecies about Christ and his ministries. He sits between Saints Cosmas and Damian; the little golden boxes on the ledge behind them are their medicine boxes, a reminder that they were doctors. Cosmas appears to be having a divine vision and raises his hands towards heaven, while Damian presses his palms together in prayer. Next to them are Saint Lawrence, on the left, and Saint Anthony Abbot, on the right. Saint Lawrence was burnt to death on a grill, which became his symbol – it rests against the bench by his side. Saint Anthony Abbot is shown as an old man with a wooden crook, because he lived as a hermit in the wilderness.”
What the Gallery’s notes do not reveal is that Lippi applied more than one identity to the saints identified as St Anthony Abbot and St Peter Martyr. Anthony is also depicted as St Jude (Thaddeus), while St Peter Martyr is a portrait of the artist himself, Fra Filippo Lippi.
In a Youtube video discussing the Lippi’s London Annunciation painting, Dr Nicholas Flory explains that both lunettes were originally housed in the Palazzo Medici, Florence, but as to exactly where there is no definite answer. He explains:
“The paintings were not included in the extensive inventory taken there in 1492. Since they were likely in the palace, however they simply have been in a room which was not included in the list of goods. Only one room omitted from the document seems suitable for such beautiful and impressive paintings: the family library. Perhaps Lippi’s ‘overdoors’ then were installed here as part of the room’s furnishings, possibly either side of a doorway but where they could have been seen by members of the family and their close associates.”
The suggestion that one or both lunettes were possibly housed in a Medici family library makes sense. The seven saints all feature in the Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea), a collection of the lives of saints compiled by Jacobus de Voraigne (c.1230 – 1298), an Italian chronicler and archbishop of Genoa. Notice the book under Lippi’s right arm. Could this refer to the Golden Legend and the source of reference for Lippi, and a book that was part of the Medici library? Observe also the seven saints are placed as a line of books sitting on a shelf. Another library reference is St Laurence (second from the left) a patron saint of librarians.
It is said that you cannot judge a book by its cover, but the clothing worn by the seven saints all reveal aspects of their lives, including Lippi himself.
Earlier this month, at this link, I pointed out that Leonardo da Vinci had sourced two of Fra Filippo Lippi’s paintings of the Annunciation for his own version. Leonardo also referenced another work by Fra Lippi, The Vision of St Augustine.
Today I discovered another work Leonardo sourced: Tobias and the Angel, attributed to Andrea del Verrocchio and his workshop. It’s a painting that art historians believe Leonardo also had a hand in producing, notably the images of the dog and the fish. Leonardo confirms his contribution by adapting and reinterpreting some of its features for his version of the Annunciation.
Verrocchio’s Tobias and the Angel is housed at the National Gallery, London. The painting is dated between 1470-1475.
Detail from the Annunciation, Leonardo da Vinci, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
One of the tell-tale features in Tobias and the Angel that can be matched in Leonardo’s Annunciation is the right arm and hand of Tobias compared with the right arm and hand of the Virgin. Three colours are applied to the arm: blue on the upper arm; gold (at the elbow joint; and red/orange on the forearm. And then there is the hand formation, the crooked little finger, the extended thumb, and the three other fingers pressed down.
Detail from Tobias and the Angel, Andrea del Verrocchio, National Gallery, London
Other areas of Raphael’s clothing are echoed in the Annunciation. So, too, is Tobias’ doublet and decorative belt, adapted to reference Botticelli and Ghirlandaio. All very cryptic, I know, but embedded sub-narratives are all part of Leonardo’s version of the Annunciation, not just the biblical account at surface level recording the Angel Gabriel appearing before the Virgin Mary.
In a post I made on Tuesday of this week I mentioned the Waterboys, and then yesterday pointed to the five consecutive letters of the alphabet written in the Holy Book featured in Leonardo’s Annunciation painting.
Detail from The Annunciation, Leonardo da Vinci, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Without realising at the time, the two posts link to today’s input featuring Fra Lippi’s painting of Augustine of Hippo and the child by the river, generally titled The Vision of St Augustine.
The Vision of Augustine (1465), Far Lippi, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
The child can be recognised as a “waterboy’; the letter ‘O’ in the string of five letters as the hole in which the boy is attempting to fill with water. This in turn links to the veil pouch (representing water) beneath the Holy Book supported on a barrel-shape pedestal that rests on the sarcophagus or small altar.
Detail from The Annunciation, Leonardo da Vinci, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
The shape of the pedestal is meant to represent Sandro Botticelli. Botticelli is a nickname, meaning ‘little barrel’, and it is a young Botticelli that Fra Lippi has used as his model for the boy attempting the impossible in his painting. Botticelli was first apprenticed to Fra Lippi sometime around 1462.
Some observers wonder if Lippi’s boy is an angel or not. But he is winged, the shape of which blend into the rock outcrop behind him. His left arm points up to the top right corner of the painting to the group of three heads representing the Holy Trinity, and so a link to Leonardo’s pointer to the mystery of the Holy Trinity in his painting of the Annunciation.
Above and below, detail from Fra Lippi’s The Vision of Augustine, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Far Lippi’s painting records the story of Augustine of Hippo who, while writing his Latin book On the Trinity, took a break to meditate and went walking near the sea shore. He came across a young boy scooping water from the sea with a shell and then emptying it into a small hole in the sand. The bishop watched the event for a while and then asked the child what he was attempting to achieve. He answered, “I am pouring all the water of the sea into this hole.” Augustine replied, “but that’s impossible, the sea is large and the hole small.” And then the boy amazed Augustine with his response: “I will sooner pour all the water from the sea into this hole than you will be able to understand and penetrate in your lifetime the mystery of the Trinity.” Augustine continued his stroll and when he turned his head to look back, the child had disappeared.
So why does Botticelli feature in Leonardo’s Annunciation? The polymath punning on the word Annunciation and the time when Botticelli, along with Domenico Ghirlandaio, were the two men responsible for the denunciation of Leonardo, accusing him and four other men of sodomy in an anonymous letter to the Florentine authorities. Ghirlandaio is also featured in the Annunciation.
Botticelli continued the conversation in his famous Primavera painting, by depicting himself as the blindfolded, winged cupid firing a flame arrow in the direction of the Three Graces (portrayed as flowing water), and in particular the Grace portrayed as Simonetta Vespucci for whom he had an unrequited love, and which could never be returned as Simonetta was a married woman – an impossible achievement on Botticelli’s part which he likened to his portrait as a boy attempting to empty a river into a hole he had dug for himself.
Notice the outstretched left arm of the Cupid figure pointing down in the direction of Simonetta, and the outstretched arm of the boy pointing up in the direction of the Trinity, three representations of Grace.
Botticelli also picked up on other features in Leonardo’s Annunciation which he transformed and embedded in Primavera, some of which I have mentioned in earlier posts – for instance, the likeness of Zephyrus, god of the west wind, is based on Fra Lippi. Others I will explain in a future post.
Detail of the Holy Book from Leonardo da Vinci’s Annunciation. source Haltadefinizione
In Leonardo’s Annunciation painting, the Virgin Mary has her right arm outstretched and hand placed on an open holy book.
Closeup, the black and red writing on the open page appears to be an indistinguishable script, although some individual letters are recognisable but not any words.
Detail of the Holy Book from Leonardo da Vinci’s Annunciation. Uffizi Gallery
However, there is a string of five consecutive letters from the latin alphabet – m n o p q – that suggests the sequence is there for a reason – a code of some kind
Although the answer can stand alone, it also connects to other features in this section of the painting and particularly Dante Alighieri and his famous poem, Divine Comedy.
The string of alphabet letters “m n o p q”
In number terms, “m n o p q” represent “13, 14, 15, 16 and 17” out of the 26 letters of the alphabet, so absent from the string are the first 12 and the last 9 letters of the alphabet.
Together, both numbers, 12 and 9, are only divisible by 3 and 1. And here Leonardo is referring to the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as three persons in one – a hidden and incomprehensible mystery of life.The Divine Comedy concludes with Dante’s vision of the Trinity.
Three is the most important symbol in Dante’s Inferno in which there are nine circles of Hell and 33 cantos.
Note the number 33 shaped from the extended quoins behind the Virgin’s right shoulder. When the two numbers are multiplied, the result is 9.
Detail from the Annunciation showing the quoins and the Virgin Mary, Uffizi Gallery.
• Dante is referenced in other areas of this section of the painting which I will explain in a future post.
My attention was caught recently by news of the death of Karl Wallinger, a former member of Mike Scott’s band The Waterboys. This prompted me to listen once more to one of the band’s big hits, The Whole of the Moon, hence the the headline for this post and part of the song’s lyric. A video and remastered version of the song is published at the end of the post.
Detail from the Codex Leicester and earthshine notes recorded by Leonardo da Vinci
The lyric also reminded me of a sketch and notes by Leonardo da Vinci explaining a phenomenon known as “earth shine” or “moon glow” where the dark side of the moon is bathed in a faint light when the lunar phase is crescent or nearly new. The sketch is part of a collection of Leonardo’s notes and studies that form the Codex Leicester, now owned by Bill Gates which he bought at auction in 1994, and paid almost 31 million dollars for the privilege.
There is a ‘crescent’ feature in Leonardo’s painting of the Annunciation. It’s the green bag or purse around the angel Gabriel’s waist, although in this scenario the Angel is represented as the Islamic angel Jibril (see my recent post: Rejoice, so highly favoured.
Detail of the angel Jibril in Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Annunciation, Uffizi Gallery.
The feature also connects to the Muslim polymath Ismael al-Jazari and another of his candle clock inventions, one of which I posted details some months ago at this link: Solving the Monkey Puzzle.
The purse feature forms part of al-Jazari’s Candle Clock of the Swordsman, and is one of many elements Leonardo adapted from al-Jazari’s illustration and incorporated in the Annunciation painting to form the angel figure.
The Candle Clock of the Swordsman, a manuscript from 1315, Syria.
Al-Jazari’s “pouch” is crescent shaped and made of copper. It’s connected by a cord to a pulley on the swordsman’s arm. Notice his armbands. The swordsman stands on a green indented base. The candle is encased by a metal sheath.
Leonardo’s crescent-shape purse is coloured green (a colour copper turns to when it oxidises). Its indented feature echoes the indented base on which the swordsman stands. Above the purse is the angel’s waistband shaped as the sheath of a curved scimitar. The cord attached to the arm and pulley in al-Jazari’s illustration is represented as the frayed ‘favour’ banded around the angel’s right arm in the Annunciation, while the pulley is the collar at the angel’s elbow.
The balls stacked alongside the sleeve of the candle drop one by one at intervals into the copper purse, and are then carried by a sloping gulley into the falcon’s head and collected and stacked again to repeat the process. As each ball is dropped at hourly intervals the swordsman strikes the candle wick to trim the burnt section.
In Leonardo’s painting the gulley is his right forearm and the balls are represented on the cuff above the wrist. As the angel Gabriel, his right arm is extended as a greeting he makes to the Virgin – “Hail Mary”. But as the angel Jibril, his extended right arm represents a throwing action and refers to the Muslim Hadj to Mecca and the practice of “stoning the devil”, hence the stones feature on the cuff.
There is another section of the angel which Leonardo utilised to represent the balls, the gulley, the candle wick and the falcon’s head, and that is Jibril’s head of hair. The candle light is the golden crown of light rays; the rolling balls into the gulley and then the falcon’s head, are the rolled curls descending from the top of the angel’s head onto the the scapular of the right wing shaped as a falcon’s head.
A full description of the workings of Ishmael al-Jazari’s Candle Clock of the Swordsman is published at this link.
Detail from the Annunciation showing the quoins and the Virgin Mary, Uffizi Gallery.
The mention of stones is a counter balance to the quoins featured in the wall behind the Virgin Mary. I explained in an earlier post – When Stones Speak – that the quoins refer to a passage from Exodus33:2 and the words the Lord said to Moses: “I will send an angel in front of you” – the angel being Gabriel.
On the angel’s side, Leonardo has balanced this by suggesting a second biblical passage can be “mined” from the number 33 and 2, two being the reference to a second meaning, and the figure 33 being the letter ‘E’ and the third chapter from the book of Ecclesiastes, which begins, “There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under the sun.” One of the sayings expressed in the passage is: “A time for throwing stones away, and a time for gathering them up”.
The green crescent shape of the angel Jibril’s purse can also be understood as the shape of a cam, for influencing rotational motion. For the cam to function it requires what is known as a “follower” to continue the process of influence or movement. On its own a cam does nothing. So here we have Leonardo making reference to Mohammad (mentioned in this post) and his followers spreading his sayings known as “Hadiths”. In a similar way the wisdom sayings of the speaker in Ecclesiastes are recorded and perpetuated.
.The “Mohammad” ribbon or favour attached to the angel’s upper arm is the force that drives the action of the stone-throwing.
The passage of time is also a major theme in Leonardo’s Annunciation, hence the many clock references in the painting, and this brings us back to Leonardo’s crescent moon and earth shine, and how the light of the moon is influenced by two sources, the sun and the reflection of the sun’s light on the earth.
I saw the crescent; you, Leonardo, saw the whole of the moon.
The Florentine Carmelite friar and artist, Filippo Lippi (c. 1406–1469), produced several paintings of the Annunciation, two of which Leonardo da Vinci sourced for his version of the angel Gabriel appearing before the Virgin Mary with news she was to bear a son to be named Jesus.
The two Annunciation paintings by Fra Lippi which Leonardo adapted features from are: the version (c.1449–1459) housed at the National Gallery, London (above); and an earlier portrayal (c. 1435–1440 kept at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC (below).Common to the three paintings is a reference to the image known as the Holy Face of Jesus.
The Annunciation, Fra Filippo Lippi, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
This pen and ink drawing is attributed to Leonardo da Vinci and is housed at Oxford University’s Christchurch Gallery. It is said to be a preparation sketch for the sleeve of the Angel Gabriel, one of the two figures featured in Leonardo’s Annunciation painting, the other being the Virgin Mary.
Sleeve study for the Annunciation, Leonardo da Vinci, Christchurch Picture Gallery
The knotted ribbon tied to Gabriel’s upper arm represents God’s favour bestowed on the Virgin Mary – a son to be named Jesus. To the left of the knot is a representation of the Holy Spirit – a dove’s head and feathered wing – by which Mary will conceive.
Art historians date the drawing between 1470 and 1473. The Annunciation painting itself is dated to c. 1472-1476. However, there are narratives embedded in the painting two suggest it was not started before the latter part of 1476.
The Annunciation, Leonardo da Vinci, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
When Leonardo put paint to board he made a change to the drawing of the favour. Gone is the Holy Spirit reference, the knot is shown with a loop, and the ribbon is extended. But this does not detract from its representation as a “favour’. Now it is not only directed to a young Jewish woman but also to another Abrahamic faith, that of Islam and the prophet Muhammad.
Sleeve detail of the Angel Gabriel. Image, Haltadefinizione
The angel Gabriel can now be understood as the Angel Jibril (Gabriel) who made himself known to Muhammad on a mountain near Mecca when the Prophet was meditating in a cave known as Hira.
Ribbon detail of the Angel Gabriel. Image, Haltadefinizione
The loop and extended section of the ribbon represents the name Muhammed, and incorporates the head of a man covering his face with his two hands, presumably the Prophet in prayer.
Seal of Muhammad Wikipedia
Shown alongside is an image that formed a ring seal of the Prophet Muhammad, which he used to sign letters. It translates as “Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah”. It is an annunciation. The top line reads “Allah”; the next line reads ‘messenger” and the third line reads “Muhammad”.
Compare the similarity of the last line with the ribbon and knot, the exception being the direction of the loop. When the Prophet Muhammad was asked by his wife Ayesha “How is your love for me?” he would reply, “Like the rope’s knot” (meaning strong and secure).
The name of the Prophet Muhammad as it appeared on his signature seal.
A major thread woven in Leonardo’s painting is that of writing and announcing, or proclamation. There are other examples apart from those issued by Gabriel, aka Jibril. Another narrative is the knot and its variations. So, also, are more references to Islam, notably Mecca, the Kaaba and its Black Stone.
Islamic folio of the Annunciation from Abu Rayan al-Biruni’s The Remaining Signs of the Past Centuries (Wikimedia Commons)
Almost a year ago (March 27) I posted an item about Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Annunciation – titled “When Stones Speak”. It explained the significance of the group of quoins or cornerstones placed behind the Virgin Mary.
Detail from the Annunciation, by Leonardo da Vinci, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
One narrative associated with cornerstones is that they point to a passage from the Old Testament. Those on the left column above Mary’s right hand are shaped and mirrored to represent the letter E and the numeral 33. Those on the right represent the numeral 2. Together they point to Exodus 33:2 and the words the Lord said to Moses: “I will send an angel in front of you” – the angel in the painting, Gabriel.
A variant of this motif is repeated by Perugino in the Delivery of the Keys fresco; by Ghirlandaio in his fresco of the Birth of Mary; and by Michelangelo in the Creation of Adam.
Handing of the Keys, by Pietro Perugino, Sistine Chapel
Perugino puns on the word quoin, sounding like coin, and there are three scenes in his fresco that reference passages in the New Testament about coins.
The Temple tax paid by Jesus and Peter (Matthew 17:24-27)
The tribute to Caesar (Matthew 22:15-22)
Judas betrays Jesus (Matthew 26:14-16)
The Temple tax detail from Perugino’s fresco
The Temple tax passage is referenced at the door of the temple. After Peter was asked if his master had to pay the half-shekel, Jesus said to his disciple: “Go to the lake and cast a hook; take the first fish that bites, open his mouth and there you will find a shekel; take it and give it to them for you and me.”
Notice Peter’s left arm and side shaped as the fish-head with its mouth open, and his right arm shaped as a hook and tail end.
Observe also the silver face feature on the front of tax collector’s tunic – and the lion-head shape on his left arm, perhaps a link to the next illustration in the fresco and the question about paying tribute to Caesar.
The group of figures on the left side of the fresco’s middle ground represents the time when Jesus was asked if it was permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not. Jesus recognised it was a trick question designed to trap him. He asked to see the money used to pay taxes and was handed a denarius. He then asked whose head and whose name was on the coin. “Caesar” was the reply. So Jesus then gave his answer to the question: “Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.”
From this it can be understood that the silver face on the tax collector’s front represents Caesar, while the lion-head shape on his shoulder represents Jesus as the Lion of Judah.
The scene also illustrates another passage from Matthew’s gospel when armed men arrested Jesus at Gethsemane after he was betrayed by Judas for thirty pieces of silver. This links to the figure of Judas in the lineup beneath the group of soldiers, shown with his hand in the common purse.
It is not by coincidence that Perugino sourced Matthew’s gospel for the three narratives. Matthew was a former tax collector.
Domenico Ghirlandaio also referenced Leonardo’s quoins when he frescoed the Birth of Mary in the Tornabuoni Chapel. At this stage I shall simply point out where he placed the three-by-two combination without an explanation as I intend to reveal more about this fresco at another time.
Detail from the Birth of Mary, by Domenico Ghirlandaio, Tornabuoni Chapel, Florence
Three facing wall panels, and the two narrow side panels behind the group of figures are Ghirlandaio’s take on Leonardo’s composition. Michelangelo drew his inspiration for his version from the eight partying putti featured above the three facing panels.
Count the figures behind the Creator’s right arm and notice they are shown as two groups of triplets (as in the musical term). The female figure of Simonetta Vespucci and Botticelli at her feet represent the two figures to complete the set of eight.
Detail from the Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel
Botticelli is placed in a support role for the figure of Simonetta who, in this instance is meant to represent a “lira da braccio” – an arm lyre which Leonardo da Vinci was a noted player and maker. In fact, he was known to have produced a silver version representing a horse head for Ludovico Sforza when he left Florence to work for the Duke of Milan.
The horse head reference forms the upper part and shoulder of the Creator’s left arm.
The head is elongated as the arm of the Virgin and Gabriel’s wax wing in Leonardo’s Annunciation. Ghirlandaio also embedded a double horse-head reference in the Birth of Mary fresco.
Michelangelo reversed this feature. Botticelli and the Creator are seen with arms wrapped around Simonetta, the “lira da brachia”. A similar motif was included by Botticelli in his Uffizi version of the Adoration of the Magi.
The lyre’s droning sound can be related to the name Vespucci, meaning wasps, as portrayed on the family’s coat of arms. This connection was also made by Botticelli in his painting of Venus and Mars.
So which biblical passage does Michelangelo’s three-three-two formation allude to? It can only be the Hebrew Psalm 33, verse 2: “Give thanks to the Lord upon the harp, with a ten-stringed lute sing him songs.”
Finally, back to the fish and the shekel taken from its mouth. In Leonardo’s Annunciation there is a disguised reference to Jonah, the prophet who was swallowed by a large fish – some say a whale or a dolphin – and then three days later was vomited onto the shoreline. This event is said to represent the Resurrection of Jesus.
In a descending line from the Temple tax depiction Jesus is shown handing the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to Peter. When Jesus spoke to the distressed Martha after her brother’s death, he said: “I am the Resurrection…” (John 11:25)
When the figure of Jesus is rotated 90 degrees clockwise, he is now shown rising from the mouth of a large fish. The three-day reference and clockwise rotation is a pointer to the clock references in Leonardo’s Annunciation and which Ghirlandaio embedded in the Birth of Mary fresco.
• Much more to come on Perugino’s Delivery of the Keys fresco.
I had intended to explain in this post more about the angels placed at the left side of the Creator in Michelangelo’s Creation of Man (Adam). The original source or inspiration for this feature is Leonardo’s Annunciation painting.
The Annunciation, by Leonardo da Vinci, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
However, I’ve since discovered that Michelangelo was also inspired by another source, Domenico Ghirlandaio’s fresco of the Birth of Mary in the Tornabuoni Chapel, Florence. This painting not only took its lead from Leonardo’s Annunciation but also an earlier fresco in the Sistine Chapel, The Delivery of the Keys, attributed to Pietro Perugino,
The timeline is: 1476-77 – The Annunciation, by Leonardo da Vinci (Uffizi Gallery, Florence) 1481-82 – Delivery of the Keys to St Peter, by Pietro Perugino (North Wall, Sistine Chapel) 1485-90 – The Nativity of Mary, by Domenico Ghirlandaio (Tornabuoni Chapel, Florence) 1508-12 – The Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo (Sistine Chapel)
Delivery of the Keys, by Pietro Perugino, Sistine Chapel
More information about Perugino’s Christ Handing the Keys to St Peter is here and here.
I shall start posting details about the fresco which will explain its connection to Leonardo’s painting of The Annunciation.
Seemingly there is no sight of any angel in Perugino’s fresco, but there is. So too are references to the extended arm and wing features that appear in Leonardo’s painting. What is an interesting discovery is that Perugino also embedded a reference to Fioretta Gorini, wrongly identified by art historians in her portrait by Leonardo as Ginevra de Benci. As confirmation, Ghirlandaio picks up on this connection in the Birth of Mary.
The Birth of Mary, by Domenico Ghirlandaio, Tornabuoni Chapel, Florence
As for Michelangelo’s group of angels, they are partly connected to the putti figures in Ghirlandaio’s fresco.
In Perugino’s fresco, the fifth figure from the left is based on the greeting stance of the angel (Gabriel) in Leonardo’s Annunciation. However, the tuft of hair seen on the forehead of Leonardo’s angel appears on the figure behind Perugino’s angel – Judas.
He is positioned as a wing on the shoulder. His extended beard is a reference to Gabriel’s extended wax wing in the Annunciation which referred to the fall of Icarus who flew too close to the sun and fell to earth. Judas also fell to earth after he hung himself in remorse for his betrayal of Jesus.
Perugino’s ‘angel’ is based on the likeness of Leonardo.
The Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
In June last year I made three posts highlighting the unusual winged scapulas attached to the angel Gabriel in Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Annunciation – the heads of a monkey and a bird.
I also pointed to a fresco by Domenico Ghirlandaio, the Preaching of John the Baptist (Tornabuoni Chapel, Florence) where the artist embedded the monkey under the chin of one of the Pharisees (Leonardo) being chastised by the Baptist (Ghirlandaio) when he referred to them as being a “brood of vipers” (Matthew 3 : 8).
As mentioned in a recent post, heads or other entities on shoulders is a signature feature in Leonardo’s paintings, and Michelangelo made ample use of this characteristic in his Creation of Man fresco.
Leonardo’s monkey and bird feature is part of the Annunciation narrative referring to the Muslim polymath Ismael al-Jazari, and his candle clock invention that featured a monkey and a falcon.
Ismail al_Jazari and a drawing of his Candle Clock
Michelangelo’s interpretation of this narrative is depicted in the section below the Creator’s right arm which shows the severed head of John the Baptist leaning on his right shoulder, and which also supports the head of the dark-skinned angel whose right arm covers part of his face.
Gabriel’s wax wing extension
This muscular arm is shaped as a wing tapering towards the hand disappearing into a dark recess. It represents the extended wax wing of Leonardo’s angel Gabriel, the wax associated with al-Jazari’s candle clock.
Notice that the red wrap is formed into a similar shape as the falcon head in Leonardo’s painting. It continues over the angel’s shoulder and under his extended arm to form a turban covering the head of a bearded man in profile (al-Jazari) – a reference not only to Ghirlandaio’s depiction of the Pharisee, but also to Leonardo’s embodiment of the Muslim’s candle clock invention.
The “brood” reference also echo’s another passage from Matthew’s gospel (23:37) – “How often have I longed to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you have refused.” It serves as a mirror and connection to the left hand of Simonetta Vespucci covered under the arm of the Creator.
Left: Domenico Ghirlandaio as John the Baptist in the Baptism of Christ. Right: Leonardo as a Pharisee in the Preaching of John the Baptist.
Back to Ghirlandaio and his portrayal in the Baptism of Christ painting, attributed to both Andrea del Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinci. Observe the visual pun on the word hair and the long ears of a hare featured on the Baptist’s chin, which could be another reason why Ghirlandaio later placed the monkey head on the chin of Leonardo in his fresco of the Preaching of John the Baptist. Leonardo is portrayed as a Pharisee, hence his turban shaped as a coiled viper. The winding turban feature and short beard doubles up as a reference to Ismael al-Jazari and the similar profile referenced in Michelango’s version.
There are two other parts in this section that are also adapted from Leonardo’s Annunciation: the dark angel’s extended knee and the dark red area beneath the angel’s elbow. Both connect to the several Islamic references Leonardo made in his early painting. I shall explain more about this in a future post.
My next post will explain how the group of six angels behind the Creator’s left arm relates to another section of Leonardo’s Annunciation.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to discover today that Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel panel of the Creation of Man references the Muslim inventor Ismail al-Jazari (1136-1206). After all, the fresco contains several pointers to Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Annunciation, and this early work of Leonardo also references al-Jazari – known as the “Father of Robotics”.
Detail from Michelangelo’s Creation of Man, Sistine Chapel
More to come on this, and an explanation for the two groups of angel triplets tucked behind the Creator’s right arm.
The Annunciation, Leonardo da Vinci, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Detail from `Michelangelo’s fresco of the Creation of Man in the Sistine Chapel
Having previously explained that the portrait of God in the Sistine Chapel’s Creation of Man panel is Leonardo da Vinci, there are other features in the fresco which Michelangelo adapted from two paintings of his rival: The Annunciation and the Louvre version of the Virgin of the Rocks.
The Annunciation, by Leonardo da Vinci, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
In the Annunciation, commentators have pointed out what they perceive as an oddity in the length of the Virgin’s right arm, and the extended section of Gabriel’s right wing. It has been assumed that the extension was painted by someone other than Leonardo at a later date. As for the anomaly associated with the Virgin’s arm, the Uffizi Gallery, where the painting is housed, suggests the distortion may be “a reflection of Leonardo’s early research into optics…”
However, both assumptions are incorrect. The wing and arm extensions were intentional on the part of Leonardo.
Michelangelo picked up on this by showing the Creator with his right arm extended and his left arm formed in the shape of a wing (see previous post). His extended right arm points to the figure of Adam who is later destined to fall from grace after tasting the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. This is a pointer to Leonardo (made in God’s image and likeness) and his fall from grace with the Medici family and departure from Florence (the Garden) to Milan.
The Damned Man detail from Michelangelo’s Last Judgement fresco in the Sistine Chapel
In a later fresco painted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel – The Last Judgement – Leonardo is depicted as the Damned Man, representing the Fall of Man. The green serpent biting into his thigh is a pointer to the coat of arms of Milan, the Biscione, which shows a serpent swallowing the figure of a man.
The Fall of Man theme also connects to Leonardo’s Annunciation. The extended wing is painted to resemble wax and is a reference to Icarus, the Greek mythology figure who flew too close to the sun and fell to earth. (More here).
The wing and long arm features in the Annunciation are extended or continued themes from an earlier painting he is associated with, the Baptism of Christ. The four figures in this painting are Andrea del Verrocchio as Christ; Leonardo and Botticelli as the two kneeling angels; and Domenico Ghirlandaio as John the Baptist. Three of the quartet, Leonardo, Botticelli and Ghirlandaio, can also be identified in Michelangelo’s Creation of Man: Leonardo as the Creator, Botticelli as the angel at the feet of Eve (Simonetta Vespucci), and Ghirlandaio as the head of John the Baptist immediately beneath the right arm of the Creator.
That Botticelli and Ghirlandaio are both featured in the panel is another reference to the pair also embedded in a disguised manner in the Annunciation as the men responsible for anonymously reporting Leonardo to the Florentine authorities accusing him of sodomy.
Detail from the Baptism of Christ attributed to Andrea del Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinci
Domenico Ghirlandaio depicted as the head of John the Baptist in Michelangelo’s Creation of Man
The head of Ghirlandaio (or John the Baptist) In the Creation of Man, is linked to John in the Baptism of Christ painting by the feathered style of his hair meant to represent a dead bird.
The same motif appears behind the head of the Baptist in the rock formation shaped as a head beneath a dead bird. Notice also the shape of a broken wing cut from the rock. In the same painting, observe the baptismal cloth in the shape of a wing carried by Leonardo – the angel at the forefront.
Notice, too, that the head of the Baptist rests on a shoulder in Michelangelo’s fresco, just as the rock formation is placed at the shoulder of John in the Baptism of Christ painting. This begs the question, who are the two angels whose heads are placed at the shoulders of the Creator? No answer for this just yet, but it does lead on to why the Creator’s left hand rests on the right shoulder of the angel depicted as Botticelli.
Lion Sejant motifs in the Virgin of the Rocks and Creation of Man. Botticelli is portrayed as both figures.
The hand’s formation is similar to the hand of Mary resting on the shoulder of the infant John the Baptist in Leonardo’s Louvre version of the Virgin of the Rocks. It resembles an heraldic seated lion – lion sejant. Leonardo “signed’ some of his paintings with a lion (Leonardo) or similar references at the shoulder of one of his subjects. The Mona Lisa is a classic example. The lion is shaped in the rocks at the woman’s right shoulder (see my post, Leonardo’s monumental cliffs). A lion-sphinx shape also appears on the shoulder of the young woman in Leonardo’s Benois Madonna. In his painting said to be of Ginevra de’ Benci, the signature shape at the right shoulder is the bear associated with St Gaul.
Parnassus by Andrea Mantegna, Louvre Museum
Andrea Mantegna, was aware of Leonardo’s signature motif. In his painting of the Parnassus (also known as Mars and Venus), Leonardo is depicted in several ways, notably as Pegasus at the shoulder of Mercury, but also as the face of a lion on the left shoulder of the crumbling bridge. There is a third representation; Leonardo’s profile is shaped as a knot attached to the shoulder of the “chaise longue” (long chair) depicted in French colours, and the two cushions placed on the seat represent his hat.
Versions of Leonardo da Vinci embedded in Mantegna’s Parnassus
The Virgin’s right hand in the Annunciation is another instance of resting on a shoulder. In this situation it is shaped as a claw resting on the inclined lectern, reminiscent of a claw-shaped page turner, pressing down. When the image is rotated 90 degrees to the right, the hand is dove shaped, symbolising the Holy Spirit; the thumb as the dove’s head, the fingers as a wing.
The hand of the Virgin Mary placed on the word of God, and shaped as a dove representing the Holy Spirit
Michelangelo was aware of this feature and adapted it to represent the left hand of Eve (Simonetta) gripping the hand of the Creator (the Word) as well as representing the hen covering her chicks, as explained in my previous post.
The left hand of the Creator is also shaped as a lion sejant, seated on the angel’s shoulder, but notice the extended forefinger and how it appears double jointed. This is a pointer to another feature of the hand shaped to represent the head and forelegs of a sacrificial lamb, the Lamb of God. And so now we have a pairing of a lion and and a lamb, a biblical reference symbolising peace. The finger also points to Botticelli as one of two men who had a hand in Leonardo’s denunciation.
There yet another feature in the scene that connects to Leonardo’s Annunciation which I shall explain in my next post.
For my first post of the new year, I’m starting with a claim I made some seven months ago: that the likeness of God in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel panel depicting the Creation of Man represents Leonardo da Vinci – so does the reclining figure of Adam, for “God created man in the image of himself”(Genesis 1 : 27).
Adam’s lounging pose and limp left hand is intended to mirror the sleeping figure of Mars in Botticelli’s painting of Venus and Mars. Botticelli’s Mars is also a representation of Leonardo.
In Ancient Roman religion and mythology, Mars, a god of war, was a son of Jupiter, the god of the sky, or heavenly father.
While the seductive figure of Venus is unable to stir the dormant Mars, Adam comes alive when God sends him into the world he has created.
On the fourth day of creation God said: “Let the waters teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth within the vault of heaven” (Genesis 1 : 20).
Living creatures are referenced above the head of Adam, aka Leonardo, although in a very much disguised fashion. The bird reference is Adam’s untidy, swept-back hairstyle, an upside-down bird nest, while the living creatures of the sea is the fish-head shape of the distant blue-stack mountain. Birds and mountains were of great interest to Leonardo da Vinci, as evidenced in his notebooks.
It was while a young Leonardo was walking the Tuscan hills that he came upon an entrance to a large cavern. As he began to explore inside the cave, his eyes set upon an embedded fossil of a large whale. He later wrote of this experience:
“O powerful and once-living instrument of formative nature, your great strength of no avail, you must abandon your tranquil life to obey the law which God and time gave to creative nature. Of no avail are your branching, sturdy dorsal fins with which you pursue your prey, plowing your way, tempestuously tearing open the briny waves with your breast. […] O Time, swift despoiler of created things, how many kings, how many peoples have you undone? How many changes of state and circumstances have followed since the wondrous form of this fish died here in this winding and cavernous recess? Now unmade by time you lie patiently in this closed place with bones stripped and bare, serving as an armature for the mountain placed over you. (Codex Arundel, folio 156 e)
Leonardo also embedded references to this experience in the background of two of his early paintings: The Baptism of Christ (attributed to both Andrea del Verrocchio and Leonardo), and the Annunciation.
Michelangelo’s whale-shaped feature is a pointer to the whale and dolphin shaped mountains rising from the sea in the distance.
The whale shape rising from the water in the Baptism of ChristThe whale and dolphins as rock formations in the Annunciation
Leonardo was fascinated by flight. It is said that he once attempted to fly from a hillside nearby to Florence but the attempt was short lived and crash landed. The bird nest reference may be Michelangelo’s suggestion that the flight came down in a tree, but it also refers to another bird feature disguised in the Baptism of Christ painting. More on this part of the story at another time.
Leonardo also made reference to a failed flight attempt in his painting of the Annunciation. Gabriel’s extended wax wing is a pointer to the embedded narrative of the Greek mythology figure, Icarus, who flew too close to the sun and fell to earth.
Verrocchio also alluded to Leonardo’s fall to earth when he featured him as a fallen angel on the breastplate of the terracotta bust of Giuliano de’ Medici.
Leonardo also gets a showing In Michelangelo’s Last Judgement fresco, painted later on the Altar Wall of the Sistine Chapel, and he appears, too, in some of the frescoed panels on the Southern Wall.
In the Last Judgment fresco Leonardo is portrayed as Adam in the Fall of Man (the Damned Man) and as one of the group of Trumpeting Angels.
In a post I made a couple of months ago about Leonardo da Vinci’s Annunciation painting, I briefly mentioned its connection to another narrative about the Greek mythological figure, Icarus, who flew too close to the sun and fell to earth.
The angel Gabriel, detail from The Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci, Uffiz, Florence
His wings were constructed by his father Daedalus, a skilled inventor, architect and artist. They were made from bird feathers, thread and beeswax. When the beeswax melted, Icarus fell from the sky. Hence the wax portrayal of the angel’s wing extension in Leonardo’s TheAnnunciation.
Now Daedalus had a talented nephew who he took on as an apprentice. His name was Talus. He was also referred to as Perdix. Both are represented by the figure of the Angel Gabriel.
Daedalus became so envious of the ingenuity shown by Talus that he made an attempt to murder his nephew by throwing him down from the Acropolis in Athens. Athena intervened and saved Talus by turning him into a partridge, hence the latin name Perdix.
Talus was also the name of a bronze humanoid forged by Hephaestus and given to Minos to protect Crete. The winged humanoid had to traverse the island three times daily and would throw rocks at invading enemies.. This connects with the references Leonardo made in his painting to the two clocks designed by Ismail al-Jazari, and also to St Roch, mentioned in a previous post.
The Greek coin shown above depicts Talus with a rock in his right hand, alongside a similar image on a relief designed by Giotto di Bondone that was once part of the bell tower in Florence. It’s meant to represent Daedalus, inventor of the Labrynth which housed the Minotaur. He’s also know for the wooden cow he made for Pasiphaë, the queen of Crete.
The humanoid Talus had only one vein. It ran from his neck to one of his ankles. It was plugged by a nail and when this was removed Talus bled to death. Leonardo compares this process to casting a bronze figure by the lost wax method, and so another reference to the wax wing. The two poles supporting the wax wing are known as sprues, tree-like structures “that will eventually provide paths for the molten casting material to flow and for air to escape” (Wiki).
Close inspection of the area beneath the angel’s chin shows a red stream stemming from the hidden side of the neck. This is meant to depict the start of Talus’s vein. The red garment is the well of fluid flowing through the humanoid’s body and exiting from the winged-man’s heel onto the ground.
That it flows or falls to the ground connects to the death of Icarus and his descent from the sky to his death; and this is how Leonardo makes the connection to the name Perdix (Partridge), a ground-dwelling bird that rarely takes lofty flights.
The Annunciation, Fra Filippo Lippi, National Gallery, London
An interesting feature of Fra Lippi’s Annunciation is the series of seemingly pseudo inscriptions in the hem of the Virgin’s blue gown. Do they have any meaning at all, or are they simply decorative attributes?
At sometime, this feature made a strong impression on Leonardo da Vinci – as did other parts of Fra Lippi’s painting – and when he later set out to paint his own version of The Annunciation, Leonardo made a point of acknowledging the mysterious detail in the Virgin’s hem and embedded narrative scripts of his own, disguised in the elaborate folds of the gowns worn by the Archangel Gabriel and Virgin Mary, particularly in the areas trailing on the ground.
The Annunciation, Leonardo da Vinci, UffiziGallery, Florence
This version of The Annunciation, now housed at the National Gallery in London, was painted by Fra Filippo Lippi sometime between 1449 and 1459. It was originally a decoration feature of the Palazzo Medici in Florence, probably above a doorway.
A mosaic copy is located some 120 miles northwest of the National Gallery in the Oratory of St Philip Neri, Birmingham. St Philip Neri was born in Florence in 1515.
The Oratory version forms part of a side altar dedicated to Ireland’s St Patrick. There are a couple of noticeable differences to the Filippo Lippi version. Missing from the mosaic is the vase of lilies, and an extended green wing has been added to the angel Gabriel.
C A T C H L I G H T 
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