Leonardo Mutans: Metamorphic Sensibility and Creative Process

LEONARDO MUTANS: METAMORPHIC SENSIBILITY AND CREATIVE PROCESS by Frederick Liers Michel Jeanneret, Perpetual Motion: Transforming Shapes in the Renaissance from da Vinci to Montaigne, trans. Nidra Poller (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press 2001) xiv + 786 pp. Originally published as Perpetuum mobile: Métamorphoses des corps et des oeuvres de Vinci à Montaigne (Paris: Éditions Macula 1997). Carmen C. Bambach, ed. Leonardo da Vinci, Master Draftsman (New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press 2003) xiv + 786 pp., 515 illustrations, 333 color plates. Catalog of the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 23 January–30 March 2003. In Perpetual Motion: Transforming Shapes in the Renaissance from da Vinci to Montaigne, Michel Jeanneret argues for a “sixteenth century swept up in change and fascinated by genesis and metamorphosis” (1). In chapters 1–8, he examines a topos of transformation in Renaissance science and culture. In chapters 9–12, he considers its aspects in texts related to the visual arts. Jeanneret does not claim that representations or techniques of transformation are unique to the Renaissance, but affirms they are widespread in the period 1480–1600. In particular, he associates the idea of transformation with humanism, noting that many humanists “rejoiced in their protean condition, seeing a fantastic potential to exploit in the mutability of things” (5–6). Moreover, he rejects the characterization of the Renaissance as reflective of an “Apollonian harmonious classic culture, that, since Wöfflin, has been so often invoked ” (6). In this regard, he finds it displays the metamorphic sensibility attributed to the baroque. Jeanneret acknowledges the influence of transformative ideas derived from classical sources (including Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Heraclitus , and Ovid). His treatment of processes of transformation focuses on works by Guillaume Du Bartas, Pierre de Ronsard, Giordano Bruno, and Michel Montaigne. He also considers transformation in the visual arts. In particular, he finds that Leonardo da Vinci embodies the metamorphic sensibility of the period. He does not present new information about Leonardo’s works and writings, but effectively places them in the context of transformative process. The translation of Jeanneret’s work is timely given the recent publication of Leonardo da Vinci, Master LEONARDO MUTANS 177 Draftsman. This catalog documents the first comprehensive international -loan exhibition of Leonardo’s work in America, displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 23 January–30 March 2003. The exhibit is among the largest groups of his drawings assembled for public display (147 drawings, 118 by Leonardo’s hand). The catalog contains essays by nine Leonardo scholars who treat various aspects of his draftsmanship. One of the exhibition’s goals is to foster reassessment of Leonardo as a draftsman in the context of drawing (disegno) as it was practiced, that is, to examine his drawings in terms of their creation and use rather than as abstract illustrations of content (8). Many of the essays that address practical aspects of his work confirm his topical fascination with transformation, but also indicate his engagement with it at every stage of the creative process—transforming and being transformed . My interest lies in correspondences between Jeanneret’s conception of Leonardo and treatments of creative process in several relevant essays in the exhibition catalog. In chapter 3, “Earth Changes: Leonardo da Vinci,” Jeanneret considers Leonardo’s ideas regarding the dynamics of change. He shows that Leonardo’s creative endeavors reflect his lifelong interest in motion . As others (including E. H. Gombrich) have noted, this is evident in his studies in the dynamics of water. Jeanneret points to Leonardo’s conviction that water is an essential motive force in the universe (57). Believing the study of water would lead to the discovery of basic natural mechanisms, he “passionately analyzed the trajectories and actions of liquids and observed seas, rivers, marshes, and cascades” (59). Leonardo ’s Notebooks include many explorations into hydrodynamics— seen in drawings such as Studies of Water Passing Obstacles and Falling into a Pool (ca. 1508–1509) (60). According to Jeanneret, Leonardo ’s interest in the movement water reveals his quest for moments of “radical mutation” (62). Certainly there are radical mutations in his thinking. In “The Codex Leicester” Claire Farago examines Leonardo’s draft for his intended...