Leonardo's paintings focus of lecture on art history

In an age when teachers complain about children's short attention spans and adults click rapidly through TV channels, Charles Rosenberg wants people to stop and look at art.

An art history professor at the University of Notre Dame, he is an authority on Renaissance and Baroque art. He will deliver the annual Rev. Theodore Hesburgh alumni lecture Nov. 9 at The College of Saint Rose in Albany on "Leonardo da Vinci and the Creative Act."

The event is co-sponsored by CSR, the Notre Dame Club of Northeastern New York, and the Albany diocesan Office of Evangelization and Catechesis.

Art slides

Dr. Rosenberg will present a slide show focusing on some of Leonardo's greatest works, including the "Last Supper" and the "Mona Lisa."

"We're used to the five-second visual experience," he remarked. But he believes that people must learn to look deeply at the world around them -- particularly at what other cultures are trying to say to them.

He said that includes a thoughtful look at art from other cultures and eras.

Symbolism

One example he will present is Leonardo's "Madonna of the Rocks" (aka "Virgin of the Rocks"). Completed in 1506 in Milan, Italy, the painting depicts the Virgin Mary, the infant Jesus, St. John the Baptist as a child and an angel.

Dr. Rosenberg calls the painting a "break with tradition," since Mary is shown in an unusual environment: a watery cave, considered by some authorities to be symbolic of the womb.

The lecturer sees this as Leonardo's "composing the figures around a void and then animating that void. He makes [the painting] about the mystery of conception."

Art in context

Although people can look deeply at a work of art in a museum, losing themselves in beauty, Dr. Rosenberg believes that art cannot really be understood without an accompanying understanding of the culture in which it was created.

During his lecture, he hopes to communicate facts about Leonardo and his world that may help people better understand his ability to "create these extraordinary images [and] instill [them] with a deeper psychological and spiritual essence."

"The Last Supper" is another one of those images. The famous painting is somewhat mysterious, its meaning having been debated by art authorities since it was created in 1498 for a Dominican monastery. Dr. Rosenberg told The Evangelist that the painting sends a complex message about both the clarity of faith and the fact that faith is "based on a willingness to understand that God functions in ways that are sometimes unfathomable to humans."

The "Mona Lisa" is less complex -- the lecturer said that it "doesn't give as much back as the 'Last Supper' or 'Madonna of the Rocks'" -- but Dr. Rosenberg sees all works of art as "messages from the past."

"There are some important things to be learned from the paintings [of Leonardo] about the nature of man, the nature of culture and the nature of faith," he stated.

(Hearing Leonardo's name makes many people think of the bestselling novel, "The Da Vinci Code," but Dr. Rosenberg won't spend much time on it. "I really didn't like the book much at all," he stated, adding that the novel should not be taken as a treatise on art history. His free lecture is Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m., at CSR's Carl Touhey Forum, 1009 Madison Ave., Albany. Call 454-5105 or go to www.strose.edu/alumni.)

(10/28/04)