Saint Anne vs. Mona Lisa

Bonjour mes amis,

During one of my latest visits to the Louvre, I decided to see the exhibition "Saint Anne, Leonardo Da Vinci's ultimate masterpiece".

It was a wonderful expo displaying not only one of the most famous paintings in the world, but also the process of a painter, from the scetch to the finished masterpiece, which is quite unusual.

"The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne" is a large-format painting which was started by Da Vinci in 1501. He kept working on the ambitious masterpiece during his life up to his death in 1519.

The exhibition showed the long and thoughtful process of Da Vinci leading up to the final version. The show combined all known scetches and paintings of the iconographical subject of Saint Anne and her daughter Mary with her grandson, Jesus, by Leonardo.

Not only did the exhibition show the process leading up to the masterpiece, but it also showed how the painting influenced italian art in the 16th century and also more recent artists like Delacroix, Degas or Ernst. They all created new versions of the theme Da Vinci rediscovered. A truly art-historical approach to a painting.

And I got some humor out of the titel of the exposition considering that the Louvre is also homing the "Mona Lisa" by Da Vinci. But the curator funnily chose to name the "Saint Anne" Da Vincis ultimate masterpiece instead of the famous Joconde. Bold. I love it.