The Bronzes of Leonardo da Vinci

Abstract

Two difficulties face the student of the smaller Renaissance sculptures. Because of the relative unimportance of the works it is not easy to find literary evidence on which attributions may rest; the works being easily moveable and intrinsically of great value, they have traveled far from their original sources. The piece in a precious or semi-precious metal has about it a glamour due to some mystic subconscious memory from prehistoric days when man first learned to wrest from mother nature the secrets of metallurgy. The power of the active elements may be felt in a Chinese or Renaissance bronze flowing before our eyes in pleasurable vital forms. Because of this value and mystery connoisseurs have approached the subject with more aesthetic reverence than true analytic vision.