Leonardo da Vinci and Pablo Picasso are two of the most famous painters in history (if not the most famous); one a Renaissance genius renowned for his skillful realism, the other a modern legend and co-founder of Cubism.
Did you know that even though Leonardo’s Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world, he only produced less than 30 paintings in total? Even then, many of them were left unfinished. Picasso, on the other hand, created nearly 2000 paintings – plus sculptures, drawings, ceramics, and hand-pulled prints that combine to over 50,000 works of art! (To be fair though, Leonardo also left behind a substantial number of drawings, sketches, and pages full of notes.)
One reason for this vast difference in the number of paintings produced is that both artists were products of the times in which they lived. When Leonardo was alive, artists didn’t have the luxury of creating art for art’s sake. Instead they were commissioned by the church, guilds and wealthy patrons to create paintings and sculptures that were expected to depict certain themes. For this reason, Leonardo needed to find work where he could. During times of war, he had to work as a military architect and engineer, designing methods of defense. Making art took a backseat to the work necessary for survival.
By the time Picasso was born 362 years after Leonardo’s death, the world was a different place. Artists had more freedom than ever to paint what they wanted. Self-expression in art was more widely accepted and expected. Instead of being commission-based, most artwork was sold in galleries to private collectors, as money flowed more abundantly through society than it did during the Renaissance. By the 20th century, successful artists such as Picasso were able to sustain themselves from the sale of their artworks alone, and did not need to seek alternate forms of employment to make ends meet.
These factors may contribute to the reason why Picasso created so many more artworks than Leonardo, even though Leonardo is the creator of the most famous painting in the world. Who knows what more Leonardo could have accomplished if he’d been alive in modern times?
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Very interesting article about Picasso and Leonardo. Thanks for this!
Most people associate Picasso only with his abstract paintings. It was refreshing to see the reference to his sculpture and ceramics! What is truely interesting about Picasso is that during his early years he was a traditional realist. At age fourteen he produced First Communion and a very sensitive Self-Portrait at age fifteen. The next year he produced a very nice pencil drawing of Matador Luis Miguel Dominguin. Picasso’s journey into cubism was yet another way to express through shape and form. I personally grew to like Picasso only after a heavy dose of Art History. After that immersion,I have been fortuneate to see a lot of his work, including Guernica at the Sophia in Madrid. Powerful stuff!
Thanks for the reminder!
Intering take on their history
Very Nice…
Thanks so much for this article!
Nice Article Dude
Nice site! I saw the link on your comment from http://pavlovshairconditioner.wordpress.com/ and couldn’t resist. I never knew that da Vinci painted fewer than 30 total paintings. That’s really amazing! You probably know the book The Story of Art (E.H. Gombrich), which I find quite interesting. Keep up the fascinating blogging.
To achieve the realism of “Mona Lisa” probably took a hundred times longer than to paint one of Picasso’s cubist paintings. Great article!
Thank you for the link and for dropping by. Fascinating to think about, especially in regard to both artists being a product of their culture. In light of that, I wonder at the type of work that Picasso or Da Vinci would have produced in a different cultural environment? Would it have remained the same? What if they had been contemporaries of one another? hehe, questions are great catalysts for discovery. Thanks again!
What an interesting angle for an article. Very fascinating. Thank you for sharing!
Love that Picasso. Keep ’em coming!
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a very astute observation. Bravo.