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Ginevra's Story
Solving the mysteries of Leonardo da Vinci's first known portrait.
MC-949, 1999
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Ginevra de Benci, the first portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, is both haunting and hypnotic. This magnificent and mysterious painting conceals a multitude of secrets. Utilizing the potential of x-ray analysis, infrared reflectography and the power of computer technology, this program delves beneath the surface of the painting to unveil fascinating stories about both Ginevra and Leonardo. The program provides answers to questions such as: who Ginevra was and how Leonardo came to paint her; why the panel is painted on both sides; how it was drastically cut-down; why it was sealed in the safety of a wine cellar; and what mysterious chain of events brought it to the National Gallery of Art – the only Leonardo in the Western hemisphere.
English version narrated by Meryl Streep. Italian version narrated by Isabella Rossellini.
| Catalog Number: MC-949 |
Type: Feature |
Genre: Art / Artist |
| Copyright: 1999 |
Length: 56 minutes |
Format:
DVD Region: 0 (All) |
| TV System: NTSC & PAL |
ISBN: |
UPC: 880198094995 |
| Label: National Gallery of Art, Washington |
Notes: Narrated by Meryl Streep. Italian version narrated by Isabella Rossellini
This title is available in Europe for Wholesale - List Prices: £16.99 / 24.95€
This program is closed captioned
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Films In Compilation
Ginevra's Story directed by
Joseph
Krakora
USA,
Documentary,
1999,
00:55:50
The program provides answers to questions such as: who Ginevra was and how Leonardo came to paint her; why the panel is painted on both sides; how it was drastically cut-down; why it was sealed in ...
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2010-02-03 Identitytheory.com
By Phil Hall
Christopher Swann’s 1999 documentary, which is now being re-released on DVD, is a compelling celebration of one of the most enigmatic masterpieces of 15th century Italian art: Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait of the 16-year-old Ginevra de’ Benci.
The portrait is significant at many levels: it was da Vinci’s first commissioned portrait (he was 22 when he received the assignment), it is one of only three female portraits created by the artist, and it is the only painting by da Vinci to be found outside of Europe (the National Gallery of Art purchased it in 1967 from the royal collection in Liechtenstein for a then-record million).
As described by Meryl Streep in the film’s graceful narration, da Vinci’s work is a “portrait as complex as life itself.” Young Ginevra is a source of visual mystery – the pale, golden-haired beauty looks straight forward to meet the viewer’s gaze, but her own concentration appears to be focused inward. Perhaps she was resigned to an unpleasant future – her father, a wealthy Florentine banker, already arranged her marriage to a much-older man whom she did not love. Perhaps she was lost in her own artistic considerations – she was a poet in her own right (though her work, sadly, is now considered lost) and the inspiration of the poetic output of the Venetian diplomat Bernardo Bembo. Her mysterious beauty rivals the "Mona Lisa" that da Vinci would create three decades later.
The painting in its current state is not the full expression of da Vinci’s talent – the bottom third of the original portrait was cut away, for unknown reasons, at some point after the 16th century. However, sketches of Ginevra’s hands survive in the Windsor Castle art collection, and the film details how the National Gallery of Art uses computer-aided design to recreate what the full portrait to include its comely subject cradling small flowers in her delicate hands. The gallery’s use of X-ray technology also provides a deeper understanding of da Vinci’s approach to the portrait’s creation, including a never-seen original banner that was painted on the back of the painting’s wood panel.
Beyond the high-tech wizardry is a view of the National Gallery of Art’s painstaking 1991 restoration of the portrait. A layer of yellowing varnish was carefully removed from the portrait’s surface, which resulted in the unexpected unleashing of da Vinci’s original color compositions. The before-and-after comparisons are astonishing, with a previously unconsidered mastery of subtle hue transitions and a surprisingly intense paleness to Ginevra’s porcelain-fine complexion.
“Ginevra’s Story” is an utterly fascinating fine arts documentary, and its return is a welcome addition to the year’s non-fiction filmmaking releases.
| 2010-02-03 blogcritics.org
By Jack Goodstein
The portrait of Ginevra de'Benci that hangs in the National Gallery of Art is one of only three portraits of women painted by the Renaissance polymath, Leonardo da Vinci. It is the earliest of the three and was painted when the artist was still a young man studying in the studio of Verrocchio. The other two portraits were painted at fifteen year intervals and illustrate the artist's technical development over time.
The second portrait, Lady with an Ermine, is of Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of Ludivico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, with whom da Vinci was trying to curry favor. The third is, of course, the famed Mona Lisa, a portrait of the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a wealthy Florentine silk merchant. All three portraits are cited by art critics and historians as examples of what they like to call psychological portraiture, paintings which go beyond the surface of the subject and get at the inner workings of their consciousness, the sub-text. Indeed, according to one critic, the Ginevra portrait, since it is the earliest, and since da Vinci is the first to do it, may well be the first example of this kind of psychological infusion.
The history of this remarkable painting and its eventual trip to its current home in the National Gallery of Art is the subject of a documentary newly released on DVD. It is a two-sided disc, one side in English narrated by Meryl Streep, the other in Italian, narrated by Isabella Rossellini. It begins by providing some information about the sixteen-year-old subject of the painting, and tries to explain how the young novice painter was awarded the commission. It explains how the painting was authenticated as a da Vinci, before it was purchased by the National Gallery in 1967 from the Prince of Liechtenstein for five million dollars, a record for that time. The description of the secrecy involved in the bidding for the painting and then getting it shipped to the United States is the stuff of spy fiction, complete with secret codes, special valises, and FBI agents.
There are also excellent explanations of the processes involved in the 1991 restoration of the painting, as well as a quite remarkable discussion of the attempt to produce a possible reconstruction of a missing portion of the bottom of the panel on which the portrait is painted. Computer artists used a da Vinci drawing of hands housed at Windsor Castle to complete the portrait, on the theory that the drawing may well have been a sketch meant for use in the painting as well as the critical judgment that hands were a very important expressive element in the artist's other work. There is also some interesting newsreel footage of the painting's arrival in the country and well as of the opening of its exhibit on St. Patrick's Day and the later visit of the Mona Lisa to the States.
While the film concentrates on the three portraits of women, especially that of Ginevra, there is also some attempt to provide insight into the artist's other work. There is some discussion of The Annunciation, an early painting just before the portrait of Ginevra, and The Last Supper. Da Vinci's mechanical and scientific pursuits are also discussed and his technical drawings illustrated.
Of course, the film's central aim is to explain what it is that accounts for the portrait's greatness, and unfortunately, as with many discussions of art, the explanations are couched in the kind of impressionistic language which leaves the viewer with little in the way of solid criteria. What we have here objectively is a picture of a very pale young lady who may be sad or perhaps pensive set against a background of a juniper bush painted on one side of a small wood panel. On the back of the panel, an emblem made up of wreath of laurel and palm framing another juniper plant with a Latin motto scrolled over it. The motto can be translated "beauty adorns virtue," which is the emblem of Ginevra's family. The juniper bush is a visual pun on the Italian word for the plant which echoes the young subject's name.
The one attempt to define the painting's greatness that resonates with some semblance of authority comes from art historian, Martin Kemp of Oxford University. Kemp asserts that in each of the three portraits da Vinci manages to create not only an individual, but an archetypal figure as well, a figure that compares with the greatest characters created by Shakespeare, for example. One might argue that this may well be true for the Mona Lisa, whether it as clearly applies to Ginevra is perhaps open to question.
Whether or not its greatness can be adequately explained analytically, however, is in some sense beside the point. For many the name da Vinci is signification enough of greatness. One of the talking heads in the film asserts that to the ordinary citizen on the strand there are three great names in painting—Van Gogh, Picasso, and da Vinci. Now while, one may quarrel with this list, there is no argument that they are all legitimate candidates for and top three list, and the painter of the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper is probably the likeliest for the top spot. One has to wonder, however, if the Ginevra portrait has necessarily helped to put him there.
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