Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Francesco Melzi / Andrea Salai - Leonardo's Favorites

Francesco Melzi after lost drawing by Leonardo da Vinci
Profile Study of a Man
ca. 1510-20
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Francesco Melzi
Portrait from life of Leonardo da Vinci
ca. 1515-18
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Francesco Melzi
after lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci
Leda and the Swan
ca. 1508-1515
oil on panel
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Francesco Melzi
after lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci
Leda and the Swan (detail)
ca. 1508-1515
oil on panel
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Francesco Melzi
after lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci
Leda and the Swan (detail)
ca. 1508-1515
oil on panel
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Francesco Melzi
after lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci
Leda and the Swan (detail)
ca. 1508-1515
oil on panel
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Francesco Melzi
Flora
ca. 1520
oil on panel, transferred to canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Francesco Melzi
Rhea Sylvia
with Scenes from the History of Romulus and Remus

ca. 1525-45
oil on panel
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht

Francesco Melzi
Vertumnus and Pomona
ca. 1518-22
oil on panel
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

"Of these papers on the anatomy of man, a great part is in the hands of Messer Francesco da Melzo [Melzi], a gentleman of Milan, who in the time of Leonardo was a very beautiful boy, and much beloved by him, and now is a no less beautiful and gentle old man; and he holds them dear, and keeps such papers together as if they were relics, in company with the portrait of Leonardo of happy memory; and to all who read these writings, it seems impossible that that divine spirit should have discoursed so well of art, and of the muscles, nerves, and veins, and with such diligence of everything." 

– from Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects by Giorgio Vasari (1568), translated by Gaston du C. de Vere (1912)

Pietro Magni
Statue of Andrea Salai
on Monument to Leonardo da Vinci

1872
marble
Piazza della Scala, Milan

Anne-Claude de Caylus
Head of a Youth (Andrea Salai)
after a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci
before 1765
etching
Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans

Leonardo da Vinci
St John the Baptist
(modeled by Andrea Salai)
ca. 1513-16
oil on panel  
Musée du Louvre

Andrea Salai after Leonardo da Vinci
St John the Baptist
(copy of original in the Louvre)
ca. 1520
oil on panel
Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan

Leonardo da Vinci or workshop
Study for St John the Baptist
(modeled by Andrea Salai)
ca. 1513-15
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Andrea Salai after Leonardo da Vinci
Monna Vanna
ca. 1510
oil on panel
Musée du Louvre

"In Milan he took for his assistant the Milanese Salai, who was most comely in grace and beauty, having fine locks, curling in ringlets, in which Leonardo greatly delighted; and he taught him many things of art; and certain works in Milan, which are said to be by Salai, were retouched by Leonardo."  [Salai was a nickname bestowed by Leonardo on his protégé, whose birth name was Gian Giacomo Caprotti, and who died in a crossbow-duel a few years after the death of his much-older master].   

– from Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects by Giorgio Vasari (1568), translated by Gaston du C. de Vere (1912)