Midnight At The Louvre With Leonardo da Vinci
Art historians wonder at the emotional power of Leonardo's paintings.
Leonardo da Vinci died in 1519, and five hundred years later, the Louvre organized a fantastic anniversary exhibition.
You can read what I wrote about it then, "An Homage to Leonardo Da Vinci’s Science of Painting."
Here, we discuss a special Moment of Wonder. Here it goes.
The exhibition was a massive success, getting 1.1 million visitors.
To celebrate that milestone and give visitors a last chance to visit it, the Louvre did something exceptional: a 24-hour opening for the last three days.
On one of those days, I got 10 pm tickets for two clients. It was so unusual for the Louvre to open all night that the press was there (I even ended up being photographed without knowing it).
In the previous three months, I had hoped to bump into the painting's curator, who had spent ten years organizing the exhibition.
That night, around 11.30 pm, my chance came.
I saw a TV crew interviewing him. After they were done, I introduced myself and told him:
"I would like to tell you something that you do not know about Leonardo."
Remember, I was saying this to one of the world's authorities on Leonardo. He could have looked at me with the same expression as if a dog just laid me there.
Instead, he smiled and said, "go on".
"I would like to share with you the emotions that Saint Anne brings to visitors."
We were, appropriately, right in front of that painting.
His interest was piqued. I explained that while the Louvre has 35,000 artworks on display, only ONE brings people to tears.
So, I shared with him all the numerous instances that got my visitors bursting into tears.
Starting with the first one.
It was with Middle Eastern ladies who a jewelry brand offered a trip to Paris. I was supposed to show them the Islamic art section, which they only found mildly interesting.
Their English wasn't very good, and one said,
"I don't care about these things; I want the Mona Lisa."
Fine, let's go. That was my opening to show them Saint Anne.
So, I asked that lady, a grandmother, to look into the eyes of Saint Anne, Christ's grandmother.
She said:
"This is the most beautiful thing I have seen in my life."
And then a flow of tears cascaded down her face.
Back to discussing with the curator. On our right was a second wonder: the cartoon (preparatory drawing) for the Saint Anne painting.
It was not the sort of thing to be preserved, but fortunately, it was.
Digital images don't have the ‘magic’ of real life, but for context, this happened five hundred years ago:
“He did a cartoon showing Our Lady and Saint Anne with the figure of Christ, which not only amazed all the artisans but, once completed and set up in a room, brought men, women, young and old to see it for two days as if they were going to a solemn festival in order to gaze upon the marvels of Leonardo which [had] stupefied the entire populace”.
An unfinished sketch that amazed and stupefied the populace, and that two ladies came to see all the way from America.
Here is their story:
About forty years earlier, the mother bought a poster of the drawing because she found it beautiful.
She has looked at it ever since, and her daughter has looked at it since birth.
And there I was, telling them:
"I will find a way so that we will be all alone to see it. There is one condition, I would tell you nothing. Don't ask anything, just look at it."
They said OK, so we rushed straight to the end of the exhibition. There were no guards, no visitors, no one but us.
She looked at the cartoon, and within two seconds, there was a river of tears.
Vincent Delieuvin, the curator, was absolutely delighted.
Two art historians, familiar with thousands of masterpieces, were in awe that these two artworks could provoke such an emotional response when countless others did not.
That was a Moment of Wonder at midnight in the Louvre.
Sources
https://www.thecollector.com/leonardo-da-vinci-science-of-painting/
https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010066107
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/leonardo-da-vinci-the-burlington-house-cartoon
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/25/arts/leonardo-louvre-weekend-nights.html
https://artjourneyparis.com/louvre-at-night-private-tour.html
Love that story! As one of the many who have been privileged to see art at the Louvre with you, I know how you set the stage for people to absorb and appreciate what are is, while the masses go rushing behind to snap selfies in front of the Mona Lisa. :) Bravo