Why did art begin? Images exist in caves  and on rocks that go back tens of thousands of years before recorded history.  What was drawn in the sand has blown away with the winds of time and what may have been etched on bark and wood has also rotted into the landscape. But our evidence exists from a hand image spat onto the walls of a cave and the stick like hunter and the hunted to the eventual pictographic hieroglyphs ( which may have been invented at the dictate of the Pharaoh Scorpion). The need to record collected wisdom most probably led to the formalisation of art. A man may not be able to read, but if he can see he can learn from images, like the instructional decorations on temple and church walls. Art was meant to communicate, both with man and with the divine. No doubt all was not greatly philosophical, as I believe we have changed little and it is possible that much would have been just for fun. Perhaps an archaeologist will search for profound meaning where none exists. Decoration may just be no more than play, doodling or making something pretty or crude. Not every caveman had the wisdom of Plato. Also, we should keep in mind that mistakes can be made. However irrespective of its history, Art like rich food should be appreciated, examined, but taken in moderation. Gallery overload teaches you nothing. On several occasions I have galloped through museums glancing at recognisable masterpieces, notching up another piece in a catalogue as if I were in competition. Contemplation and understanding is what is required. Yes, a book and a reproduction can reveal much, but like a photo of a loved one it compares not with the flesh and blood experience of being close to the real thing. So I here record a little of Painters whose works I have seen throughout the galleries of the world or at least exist on my shelves.

' Moreau                  l Greco                                       Two portraits                                          Botticelli                                   Caravaggio                                     William Blake              

Saint Sebastian - a favourite subject as an excuse for painting the male figure with Church approval. This and the nude are discussed further on a separate page.

Leonardo Da Vinci  

In addition to being one of the most intelligent and inventive persons to have existed, Leonardo is said  to have been a strikingly handsome man with great strength and a fine singing voice. The historian Vasari described him as a young man 'whose personal beauty could not be exaggerated, whose every movement was grace itself and whose abilities were so extraordinary that he could readily solve every difficulty.....with his right hand he could bend the clapper of a knocker or a horse-shoe as if it had been of lead...a spirit and courage invariably royal and magnanimous....could sing and improvise divinely...charming conversation won all hearts..'  Unlike his fellow 15th-century Italians, he was a vegetarian and followed strict dietary rules. He loved animals so much that he would buy caged animals at the market just to set them free. He was  also fond of fine clothes and practical jokes.

Above:- Self portrait in the corner of an unfinished work and a bronze of David by his teacher Verrocchio, the model is said to have been Leonardo, as is the Botticini Saint Michael.. Other theories say that the Mona Lisa (at bottom of page) is actually the face of Leonardo and also that he painted the Shroud of Turin using his own face as that of Christ. Compare the youthful portraits of Leonardo above and also the self portrait in old age below.                                      

Leonardo da Vinci was born on 15 April, 1452 in a farmhouse in Anchiano, in the Tuscan hills near Vinci outside Florence and was christened ‘Lionardo’.. The family had lived in this area since the 13th century. His father Ser Piero, was a 25 years old public notary. His mother Catarina was either a peasant or a barmaid, but that year Ser Piero married another woman, the first of four wives, and moved to Vinci. 

The four wives of Leonardo's father.

Albiera di Giovanni Amadai was born in 1436 and died between 1460 and 1465. At the age of sixteen she married Ser Piero. This happened in the same year as Leonardo was born. Ser Piero and Albiera didn't have any children. Francesca di Ser Giovanni Lanfredini was the second very young wife of Ser Piero. Unfortunately she died early. Margherita daughter of Francesco di Gacopo di Guglielmo was the third very young wife of Ser Piero. She was born in 1458. They had two sons. Antonio in 1476  was the first legitimate son of Ser Piero. The second son was Giulian born in 1479. Margherita died soon after 1480. Lucrezia di Guglielmo Cortigiani was the fourth wife of Ser Piero. This marriage was blessed with a large offspring. Ser Piero and Lucrezia had seven sons and two daughters. The last was born when Ser Piero was 75 the fourth wife of Ser Piero. This marriage was blessed with seven sons and two daughters. The last was born when Ser Piero was 75

Leonardo spent his first years with Catarina in Anchiano. Catarina married some years after the birth of Leonardo a man from Vinci called Acattabriga di Piero di Luca. In all he had 17 half brothers and sisters. When he was five, Leonardo moved to his grandfather in Vinci and was at last a member of his fathers family, but he was never legitimate or close to his father. The inquisitive Leonardo learned to write, to read and to calculate. Also he was taught geometry and Latin, although he never mastered it and wrote in Italian throughout his life. Leonardo lived in Vinci until 1466. 

At the age of 14 Leonardo moved to Florence where he began an apprenticeship in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio  who was at this time the most gifted artist in Florence. He was a sculptor, painter, goldsmith, bronze caster and more. Leonardo worked  with other famous artists like Botticelli, Perugino and Lorenzo di Credi. There are no works of Leonardo known between 1466 and 1472, but at this time Leonardo taught himself to paint in oils, which had been developed by Dutch artists. In June 1472 Leonardo was listed in the red book of painters from Florence and with membership in the painters guild of Florence he ended his apprenticeship. Leonardo didn't leave the workshop at the end of his apprenticeship. The first known and dated work of Leonardo da Vinci is a pen-and-ink drawing of the Arno valley. Leonardo drew it on 5. August 1473.  It shows the ingenious mind of Leonardo, because he drew the landscape in a way that it could be real. Nobody else before did it in this way. There is evidence that he had his own workshop between 1476 and 1478 and that he was already involved in mechanical studies

On 8. April 1476 an anonymous person accused Leonardo of having a homosexual affair with 17 year old Jacopo Saltarelli, who was a model/ prostitute. He was held for two months but acquitted of the charge for lack of witnesses. That year he was twice denounced  for acts of sodomy. His main companion for 30 years was one of his pupils Giacomo Caprotti (left) who was given the nickname Salai (little devil). Caprotti was 'a graceful and beautiful youth with fine curly hair, in which Leonardo greatly delighted' and was ten years old when he entered da Vinci's household. He was a thief and had no talent but he remained with Leonardo from then on and received a vineyard near Milan in the old man's will. Leonardo also later took an interest in a young aristocrat and painter, Francesco Melzi, whom he adopted and to whom he left the bulk of his estate. It is generally assumed that he had sexual relations with both these devotees. 

1482 Leonardo travelled to Milan ostensibly to play the lute at court but he had seen Lodovico Sforza as a better patron then the Medici's of Florence. He was full of ideas but much of his early time in Milan was spent in frivolous entertainment at court. He studied anatomy, dreamed up machines and designed towns. Sforza was captured by the French in 1499.  In the last of his 18 years in Milan he produced the great works we know today. King Francis I. invited Leonardo da Vinci to spend the last span of life in Amboise at the court of France. In autumn 1516 Leonardo arrived in Amboise. In his baggage was the famous painting Mona Lisa. Leonardo lived in Amboise in the small castle Cloux which is now called Le Clos Luce. This castle is situated between the town and the king’s castle. In France Leonardo didn't paint, but he made hydrological studies. At this time Leonardo da Vinci was 67 year old. His state of health was not the best, because Leonardo had a paralysis on the right side of his body since 1517 and historian Vasari told about an illness some weeks before Leonardo died. On 23 April 1519 Leonardo wrote his last will and died on 2 May 1519 in Amboise.  Originally Leonardo was buried in the heart of the king's castle in the cloister of San Fiorentino. After destruction of the church and parts of the castle the mortal remains of Leonardo da Vinci were transferred to the Chapel of St. Hubert  inside the castle area in Amboise and this is the last resting place of Leonardo da Vinci.

In his time left-handedness was considered the devil's work and people were often forced to use their right hand. Leonardo was left handed and it has been suggested that this "difference" was an element of his genius, since his detachment allowed him to see beyond the ordinary. He even wrote backwards, and his writings are deciphered only with a mirror.

The Mona Lisa Story

The portrait full of mystery and secrets was painted on a 77 x 53 cm piece of poplar-wood and is the most famous work of Leonardo da Vinci. Originally the painting was larger than today, because two columns, on the left and right side have been cut, hence it is not easy to recognize that Mona Lisa is sitting on a terrace. Many details are not visible today, because parts have been damaged and painted over. It is supposed, that Francesco di Bartolommeo di Zanobi del Giocondo, one of the noblest citizen of Florence, ordered from Leonardo a portrait of his third wife Lisa di Antonio Maria di Noldo Gherardini. Leonardo started to work at this painting in 1503. At this time Mona Lisa was twenty-four year old. He worked at the portrait for the next four years. When Leonardo left Florence in 1507 he did not sell the painting but he kept it for himself. Several believe, that Leonardo did not hand over the painting, because he did not finish the work, other believe that Leonardo loved the painting to much. As mentioned above some claim it to be actually the face of Leonardo himself. He arrived with the painting in his baggage in France in the year 1516. Leonardo sold the painting to King Francis I., who bought it for the castle in Amboise. It moved to Fontainebleau, Paris, Versailles and then to the collection of Ludwig XIV. After the revolution in France the painting got a new home in the Louvre. Napoleon took it away from there and hung it in his bedroom. When Napoleon was banished Mona Lisa returned to the Louvre.

On 21 August 1911 Mona Lisa was stolen and brought to Italy, where it emerged two years later in Florence. After some exhibitions Mona Lisa returned again to Paris. Thrown acid damaged the lower half of the painting in 1956 and the restoration took several years. In the 60´s and 70´s Mona Lisa was taken to New York, Tokyo and Moscow. Today the painting is behind bullet-proof glass in the Louvre and has been moved to its own wall under special lights for better viewing.  

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Michelangelo was born in Tuscany, to Ludovico di Leonardo di Buonarotto Simoni and Francesca Neri. He was the second of five brothers. His father noted "Today March 6, 1475, a child of the male sex has been born to me and I have named him Michelangelo. He was born on Monday between 4 and 5 in the morning, at Caprese, where I am the Podestà." Ludovico hoped that Michelangelo could become a successful merchant. When Michelangelo turned 13 became an apprentice to the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. Michelangelo went on to study sculpture in the Medici gardens and was invited into the household of Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent. He met the young Medici, two of whom later became popes (Leo X and Clement VII). He got permission study human anatomy/corpses, but contact with the dead bodies caused problems with his health. "Already at 16, my mind was a battlefield: my love of pagan beauty, the male nude, was at war with my religious faith."

Michelangelo went to Rome, where he studied newly unearthed classical statues. He produced his first large-scale sculpture, Bacchus (second from left). At the same time, Michelangelo almost 25 , did the marble Pietà (1498-1500). Just days after it was placed in Saint Peter's, Michelangelo overheard a pilgrim remark that the work was done by Christoforo Solari. That night in a fit of rage, Michelangelo took hammer and chisel and placed the following inscription on the sash running across Mary's breast : MICHEL ANGELUS BONAROTUS FLORENT FACIBAT (Michelangelo Buonarroti, Florentine, made this). This is the only work that Michelangelo ever signed. On August 4th, 1501, a republic was again proclaimed in Florence. Twelve days later the Wool Guild commissioned him to sculpt a statue of David. The 4.34 m marble giant was produced between 1501 and 1504. Michelangelo wrote in his diaries: "When I returned to Florence, I found myself famous. The City Council asked me to carve a colossal David from a nineteen-foot block of marble -- and damaged to boot! I locked myself away in a workshop behind the cathedral, hammered and chiselled at the towering block for three long years. ... I insisted that the figure should stand before the Palazzo Vecchio, as a symbol of our Republic. I had my way. Archways were torn down, narrow streets widened...it took forty men five days to move it." With this statue Michelangelo proved that he not only surpassed all modern artists, but also the Greeks and Romans. The statue which now stands in the palazzo is a copy with the original being placed indoors.

Pope Julius II chose Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, the Sangallos, Peruzzi, Bramantino, Sodoma and Lorenzo Lotto to work on his grand visions. Julius II said Michelangelo "is Terrible, as you see, you can do nothing with him." He was brusque and rude, touchy and intransigent. He had no pupils, and always used boys from the workshop as his assistants. He and Leonardo da Vinci, twenty years his senior, were jealous enemies. In April 1508, Michelangelo was summoned to Rome to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Buonarroti who regarded himself as a sculptor, had to perfect the art of fresco. Bramante and others suggested this hoping he would refuse or fail. Julius II let himself be swayed by Michelangelo's creative frenzy, and both were carried away by their enthusiasm. In May 1508, Michelangelo began designs and months later he started the painting, with the assistance of Giuliano Bugiardini, Aristotele da Sangallo, Francesco Granacci, and a number of labourers. He soon fired all of his assistants, removed what had been painted and in January 1509, recommenced  on his own. Condivi recalls that "as a result of having painted for so long a time, keeping his eyes fixed on the ceiling, he saw little when he looked down; if he had to read a letter or some other small thing, he was obliged to hold it above his head." He refused to show it to anyone except the nagging Pope, but in August 1511 he relented and made such an impression on the artists of the time that Raphael altered his own style. "After four tortured years, more than 400 over life-sized figures, I felt as old and as weary as Jeremiah. I was only 37, yet friends did not recognize the old man I had become."

This comes from dangling from the ceiling–
I'm goitered like a Lombard cat
(or wherever else their throats grow fat)–
it's my belly that's beyond concealing,
it hands beneath my chin like peeling.
My beard points skyward, I seem a bat
upon its back, I've breasts and splat!
On my face the paint's congealing.

Loins concertina'd in my gut,
I drop an arse as counterweight
and move without the help of eyes.

Like a skinned martyr I abut
on air, and, wrinkled, show my fat.
Bow-like, I strain toward the skies.

No wonder then I size
things crookedly; I'm on all fours.
Bent blowpipes send their darts off-course.

Defend my labor's cause,
good Giovanni, from all strictures:
                        I live in hell and paint its pictures. Michelangelo Buonarroti

In Rome, he was protected by Pope Clement VII who, before his death, commissioned him to paint the fresco of the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel but Michelangelo's crowning achievement was in his seventies, as chief architect of St Peter’s in 1546 becoming responsible for the altar end of the building on the exterior and for the dome.   He wrote to his nephew Lionardo: "Many believe, -- and I believe -- that I have been designated for this work by God. In spite of my old age, I do not want to give it up; I work out of love for God and I put all my hope in Him." Michelangelo would not accept any payment for this sacred task ( he was already very rich). "I spend my days supervising the construction of St. Peter's. The Vatican's financial superintendent keeps harassing me for a progress report. My response: your lordship, I am not obliged to, nor do I intend to, tell you anything. Your job is to keep the money rolling in, and out of the hands of thieves. I will see to the building."

                    Michelangelo Buonarroti died, on February 18th, 1564, after a "slow fever. The body of the dead artist was deposited in a sarcophagus in the church of Santi Apostoli, but a few days after the burial his nephew Lionardo Buonarroti, who had arrived in Rome, took possession of his uncle's property and carried off the corpse, concealed in a bale. As soon as they reached Florence, the mortal remains of the "divine artist" were taken to Santa Croce (where Michelangelo himself had wanted to be buried). The inhabitants of Florence turned out in large numbers, venerating the body of their illustrious fellow citizen, "father and master of all the arts," as if it were a sacred relic.

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI AND HIS SEXUALITY

The sonnets of Michelangelo's were once altered by his relatives and historians, to present them as heterosexual. In the nineteenth century, JA Symonds  restored their homoerotic nature, although some modern historians still argue over the nature of his sexuality.

VEGGIO NEL TUO BEL VISO

"From thy fair face I learn, O my loved lord,
That which no mortal tongue can rightly say;
The soul imprisoned in her house of clay,
Holpen by thee to God hath often soared:

And tho' the vulgar, vain, malignant horde
Attribute what their grosser wills obey,
Yet shall this fervent homage that I pay,
This love, this faith, pure joys for us afford.

Lo, all the lovely things we find on earth,
Resemble for the soul that rightly sees,
That source of bliss divine which gave us birth:
Nor have we first fruits or remembrances
Of heaven elsewhere. Thus, loving loyally,
I rise to God and make death sweet by thee."

NON VIDER GLI OCCHI MIEI

"No mortal thing enthralled these longing eyes
When perfect peace in thy fair face I found:
But far within, where all is holy ground,
My soul felt Love, her comrade of the skies:
For she was born with God in Paradise;
Nor all the shows of beauty shed around
This fair false world her wings to earth have bound;
Unto the Love of Loves aloft she flies.
Nay, things that suffer death quench not the fire
Of deathless spirits; nor eternity
Serves sordid Time, that withers all things rare.
Not love but lawless impulse is desire:
That slays the soul; our love makes still more fair
Our friends on earth, fairer in death on high."

Michelangilo di Lodovico Buonarroti-Simoni had passionate love for young men.  He lived in an age of magnificence and grandeur and when politics and art was overwhelmingly  masculine and phallic. Masculine passion exuded from his sculpture of mostly naked young men.  He even used male models  for his muscular female figures who are distinguished only by their longer hair. His nude youths in the Sistine Chapel outraged many for their Christian irrelevance and sensuality. He was sexist, and believed firmly in male superiority. In one sonnet he declares that the highest form of love cannot be for a woman, because a woman "is not worthy of a wise and virile heart.". Michelangelo often spoke exclusively of male love and gained a homosexual reputation. He recalled how a father offered his son as an apprentice: "Once you saw him, you'd chase him into bed the minute you got home!"  When said that his behaviour had arisen because of his love of the nude male body, he retorted "Whose judgment would be so barbarous as not to appreciate that the foot of a man is more noble than his boot, and his skin more noble than that of a sheep, with which he is dressed?"

        Two of his great loves were, Gherardo Perini and Tommaso Cavalieri. The handsome model Gherardo Perini came to work for Michelangelo around 1520. Their love flourished in1522-25, and lasted until the mid-1530s. Whenever Perini failed to show up he was distraught and lamented "I beg you not to make me draw this evening since Perino's not here."  - this scrawled on a page bearing a drawing of a naked cherub urinating into a vase. Scholar Robert Clements believes this affair was overtly homosexual, and he points to some  verses of 1520-30 probably written to Perini, ‘I had always thought I could come to terms with love, Now I suffer, and you see how I burn.’ In the early 1530s Michelangelo had a relationship with his much younger model Febo di Poggio. He calls Febo "that little blackmailer," because Febo adopted him as "my honorary father" and sought money, clothes, and gifts.  Their affair lasted through 1533-34, but ended when Michelangelo discovered that he had betrayed him.

Blithe bird, excelling us by fortune's sway,

Of Phoebus' thine the prize of lucent notion,
Sweeter yet the boon of winged promotion
To the hill whence I topple and decay!

Easily could I soar, with such a happy fate,
When Phoebus brightened up the heights.
His feathers were wings and the hill the stair.
Phoebus was a lantern to my feet.

Other lovers of Michelangelo may have included his servant and constant companion Francesco Urbino; Bartolommeo Bettini,  and Andrea Quaratesi (left) the 18-year-old boy with whose family he lived for several years. Letters show that Andrea was  extremely infatuated with Michelangelo, and  even wished to "crawl on all fours" to see the artist one night. On the back of a letter to Andrea, Michelangelo writes of himself being shot at by Cupid's arrows. His drawing of Andrea is his only finished portrait sketch.

In spite of other relationships Michelangelo in 1532 began wooing Tommaso Cavalieri. Cavalieri was a Roman nobleman, forty years younger than Michelangelo, and frightened by the amorous advances and gossip. The erotic statue of Victory (right) is said to represent the standing figure of Cavalieri, and the kneeling figure is that of the devoted  Michelangelo. He sublimated his desires in this instance into some of the finest Platonic friendship poetry ever written. It is also believed that the face of Christ the Judge (left) in the Sistine Chapel is that of Cavalieri.  He wrote to him: 'May I burn if I do not love thee with all my heart, And lose my soul, if I feel for any other! ' and various sonnets refer to Cavalieri.