Da Vinci, Vespasian and the Grotesque

Five Grotesque Heads, circa 1490
pen and ink on paper, 
by Leonardo Da Vinci
Location: Windsor Castle, Windsor, UK

The Ugly Duchess got my Art History 101 juices flowing again.  As I looked through some of Leonardo's Grotesques, I was astounded to see a familiar face.  The guy in the right upper corner of the sketch is a dead ringer for Emperor Vespasian (A.D 69-79), the first Flavian Emperor (see this for an old post of another striking look-alike). Check out the obverse of the coins below for comparison.

Vespasian (69-79 AD)

Judaea Capta Sestertius
'Captive Jew & Mourning Jewess'

Rome, 71 AD

Vespasian (69-79 AD)

Judaea Capta Sestertius
'Emperor & Mourning Jewess'

Rome, 71 AD

He's a familiar face, but in reality he's no friend of mine. History has a tendency to look on his reign with a measure of fondness since he was less bad than his predecessors (and his son Domitian much worse than him).  That doesn't make him good. He was a real dirt bag (I just love his coins). He spent his life as a career General of the II Roman Legion, "Augusta" which saw heavy action in Britannia in 43-47 AD. His military career also took him to Germany, North Africa, Greece, Egypt and finally Judaea. His soldiers were devoted to him, and this eventually helped make him emperor. He is one of the few people to fall asleep during one of Nero's marathon lyre recitals and live to tell about it. He was spared because his services were badly needed by Nero. He was called on to pacify Judaea during the Jewish rebellion of 66-70 AD. He did so with the assistance of his look-alike son Titus (see below for coin), who assumed his command  after Vespasian became emperor in 69 AD. The Judaea Capta ("Judaea Conquered") series of coins commemorate this bloody victory: one of the most brutal in Rome's history. It not only resulted in the destruction of the rebellion, but the complete destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and the death or enslavement of millions. This may be part of the reason Leonardo sketched him. He was a very bad man.

Titus (79-81 AD)
Judaea Capta Sestertius
'Mourning Jewess with Weapons"
Rome, 80-81 AD

 The Ugly Duchess, the subject of an earlier Grotesque study by Da Vinci was inspired by the original by Quentin Matsys.  One has to wonder if the horrific reputation of Margaret Countess of Tyrol made her a candidate for Da Vinci's Grotesque study, just as the horrific reputation of Vespasian merited him the dubious honor of being one of the five heads in this picture. There would have been plenty of material on which Da Vinci could have based this study. Vespasian's image would have been easy to spot in Florence and Milan where he lived and worked. His coins are amongst the most plentiful of ancient Roman coins.  The Judaea Capta series in particular was one of the most notorious in the way it celebrates Vespasian's atrocities. To me there is a striking resemblance between the coin and the sketch.

It's difficult for me to look at the faces in Da Vinci's Five Grotesque Heads sketch and conclude that these are anything other than very bad men. The overall sketch evokes the atmosphere of Imperial Rome. The fellow that is front left is the embodiment of sycophancy; the guy behind him is letting loose the proverbial evil laugh. The central figure with the oakleaf laurel has cold calculating eyes and resolute determination. I don't recognize him as an emperor of Rome--maybe he's a senator. I think my mother would describe the guy on the far right as a stunned banana.  To me he looks like the master-mind behind the plot that has just unfolded. In the background is Vespasian, comfortable in very bad company.

Some think Da Vinci's Grotesque sketches are an artistic expression of the struggles between good and evil.  Consider one of his most famous Grotesques, purported to the images of the Gypsy chieftan named Scaramuccia. The angle of his face resembles that of Judas Iscariot in the Last Supper (1497). In contrast other works are strikingly beautiful and heavily imbued with themes of righteousness. This is certainly true of many of his paintings, but also evident in sketches that are more comparable to the Grotesques. A fine comparator is the Burlington House cartoon at the National Gallery in London.  

A Grotesque Head, 1504-1507
chalk on paper
 by Leonardo Da Vinci

The Virgin and Child with St Anne and Infant St John the Baptist
(The Burlington House Cartoon), 1499-1500
charcoal and white chalk on paper, mounted on canvas
by Leonardo Da Vinci
Photo Credit: Big Reid's iPhone @ National Gallery, London

Da Vinci himself is the only person that could clearly state if he was trying to represent evil with ugliness and righteousness with beauty.  For me, it seems likely.  Given this assumption, all kinds of questions about his self portrait spring forth. Is it beauty or ugliness that he has captured?  With him, as with all real people, it isn't black or white.  His self-portrait is much like we'd paint ourselves if we were completely honest.  There is a little of both. 

Portrait of a man in red chalk (self-portrait age 60), circa 1510
red chalk on paper
by Leonardo Da Vinci
Location: Royal Library, Turin, Italy

There is no doubt a tendency for us to see those things we are looking for.  Let me know if you see a resemblance between the coins and the sketch or if it's just my overactive imagination. 

The Ugly Duchess (Part 1)

An Old Woman (The Ugly Duchess), oil on wood; 
painted about 1513 - by Quinten Matsys (1465-1530)
Photo Credit: Big Reid's iPhone @ National Gallery, London

What inspired the genius of Leonardo Da Vinci? 

At the end of the 14th-century, Quentin Matsys (also spelled as Massys) was a little-known Flemish artist who went on to be the founder of the Antwerp School. While wandering through the National Gallery in London, I stumbled on to his 1513 painting: An Old Woman (The Ugly Duchess).  This was easily the most captivating portrait I encountered during my visit (maybe because endocrinologists find Paget's disease interesting, maybe because Matsys is so talented). At only 500 years old, it was in stark contrast to the flawless beauty depicted in the classical Greek sculptures of the British Museum, which I'd visited earlier that day.

Drawing of a Grotesque Woman; red chalk on paper
by Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)

Both Da Vinci and Matsys were very interested in ugliness. For years, art scholars assumed that The Ugly Duchess was based on one of  Da Vinci's Grotesque sketches. Da Vinci was renowned for his intensely private studies that included detailed sketches of this style. In reality, the evidence now suggests that it was Da Vinci who was inspired. The two artists were known to have exchanged sketches. In this case, it is difficult to dispute that Leonardo was deeply influenced by Matsys' work.

The Matsys painting is purported to be a portrait of Margaret Countess of Tyrol, who was also known as Margarete Maultasch (Margaret 'Satchel-Mouth'). However, the Countess died almost 100 years before Matsys was even born. She was an Austrian princess in the 14th century. Legends (which are of dubious reliability) describe her as a ruthlessly violent nymphomaniac; she also was purported to be the embodiment of ugliness. Maybe that is why her name has been attached to the Matsys portrait. Other reports describe her as beautiful and kind. It is obvious that the former reputation holds sway.

Scholars seem to agree that the sitter for Matsys' work had striking facial deformities from long-standing Pagets's disease of bone (more on this another time). We can't be certain about what message Matsys was trying to convey in this work.[i] Conceivably, it was an accurate portrait of a rich noble that depicts striking self-confidence in the face of a butt-ugly exterior. But for me, Matsys was making a much larger statement.  I see his work a mirror into which each observer has the opportunity to gaze and take a long hard look at themselves.

To look at the accoutrements of the Duchess, we see the trappings of one obsessed with youth and outer beauty.  She wears a heavily jeweled headdress of an aristocrat, but one that was then so outdated as to make it comical.  It's horned shape and associated veil are meant to highlight her face. Her jewelry and clothes are of the highest quality and craftsmanship and betray her affluence and social stature.  The low-cut neckline and corseting of her bodice show off her breasts and figure.  In her right hand she holds a single red rosebud, symbolic of her quest for a suitor.

But there is a problem . . . SHE IS NOT BEAUTIFUL. Her breasts are wrinkled and flabby.  Her lips are thickened; her face is coarse and wrinkled; her ears are abnormally large.  Her bulbous and upturned nose looks more like a snout. Her cranial deformities masculinize her features with bossing of her forehead and brows, and enlargement of her chin and jaw. The extension of her upper lip give her a grotesque ape-like appearance. Rather than the image of a beautiful young woman, we have the impression of a balding old man. In the words of Isaiah, this is 'burning instead of beauty.' Indeed, she is a bud that will 'likely never bloom'.

I must say I've never seen Paget's disease of this severity in my whole career,[ii]but I've seen my share of ugly Duchesses. It is manifest in many ways: infatuation with all things superficial, unbridled lust for perpetual youth, cosmetic surgery taken to extremes,[iii] obsession with fitness and body building, out-of-control wardrobes, infatuation with having the right labels on everything from grocery bags to pencils, and inability to simply grow up and put off childish things (I could go on but will cut the diatribe short). Let me concede that I appreciate beauty, quality, 'nice things' and a youthful spirit.[iv] But for me this unforgetable painting was a useful illustration of the trappings of the flesh. I saw in this 500 year old painting the here and now. The realization that we need to somehow get beyond this suddenly crashed in to my comfortable existence. 

If The Ugly Duchess portrait is a mirror, then most of us will find it reflecting back some inner ugliness of which we are not so proud.  We use the principle of distraction to focus outside attention to our more favorable attributes: style, clothing, wit, adornments--anything but the ugliness we're trying to hide. Like the Duchess, we spare no expense in trying to disguise and cover it. But, even heroic efforts to retain one's youth and physical beauty are doomed to fail. Our blemishes will not be hidden forever. Even a life spent in the pursuit of remaining one of the beautiful people is likewise a losing endeavor that will not keep us happy or bring more than transitory inner peace.

The point of all this (finally!), is that figuratively speaking we are all ugly because of sin, and no amount of primping or adornments will succeed in covering it.  The atonement of Jesus Christ and his gospel have the ability to make the ugly beautiful.  In fact, it is the only way it can be done. David was fond of the notion that true beauty comes as we worship the Lord in holiness (Psalms 29:2; 96:9). Nephi, Isaiah and Jeremiah all use beauty as a surrogate for righteousness.  I think Moroni may have said it best:

O then ye unbelieving, turn ye unto the Lord; cry mightily unto the Father in the name of Jesus, that perhaps ye may be found spotless, pure, fair and white, having been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, at that great and last day.

These are truly inspired words to remember the next time I start to 'get my Duchess on'.

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[i] It has been suggested that Matsys may have been expounding on an essay of Erasmus from 1511 in which he satires women who "still play the coquette", "cannot tear themselves away form their mirrors", and "do not hesitate to exhibit their repulsive, withered breasts" [Grössinger, Christa (1997). Picturing women in late Medieval and Renaissance art. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 136.]

[ii] This degree of deformity is a relic of the past thanks to advances in medical treatment for Paget’s disease over the last 25 years.

[iii] I find great humor in the latest trend: silicone lip injections that create a look reminiscent of a carp's mouth. I'm increasingly amazed by the number of men using anabolic steroids solely for the look.  Thursday I saw my first 64-year old man with pectoral implants when he came in looking for hCG, human growth hormone and testosterone . . . no joke!

[iv] There is currently a big family dispute on whether I'm on my 3rd or 4th midlife crisis . . .