Leonardo’s Legacy: Painting -- Layers of Intensity

Aloi (School of the Art Institute of Chicago)
Leonardo da Vinci’s ability to see beneath the surface of appearances laid the foundations of the modern world. From technology to art and science, Leonardo’s desire to discover and understand the secret workings of the natural world bore a deeply modern, existentialist tone to European culture.  At times, Leonardo’s genius saw into the future and envisioned a functional world designed to better life. At others, he focused his efforts on dreaming up lethal war machines fine-tuned to eradicate it. From his outstanding paintings to his scientific perspectives, Leonardo’s oeuvre pieces together the image of a visionary mind capable of shaping the world in ways that impact our lives today.
 
This series of lectures explores the legacy of Leonardo’s complex genius, focusing on the key moments that made the polymath’s life and career of incomparable importance to the history of the Western world.
 
This Lecture: 
Despite being known as one of the most famous artists in the world, Leonardo painted sparingly and somewhat reluctantly. His mind privileged thinking as a purely philosophical endeavor. Envisioning the composition was to him more exciting than applying paint to canvas. However, always busy reinventing materials and techniques, Leonardo cast himself as a new kind of artist committed to breaking rules and accomplishing the impossible.
 
The following lecture will also be presented as part of this series:  
April 16:  Leonardo’s Legacy: Technology -- Envisioning the Future

Giovanni Aloi is an art historian in modern and contemporary art. He currently teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sotheby's Institute of Art New York and London, and Tate Galleries. He regularly lectures on modern and contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been translated in Italian, Chinese, French, Russian, Polish, and Spanish.
Free and open to the public