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AHVS 121 Understanding Visual Communication
Winter 2022 Assignment 2
This week’s assignment considers issues involved with physical, spatial and cultural context focussing on a case study involving
two portraits by Leonardo da Vinci as displayed in an exhibition at the National Gallery London. Please note, I am not asking for
biographical research on Leonardo, or for discussion of his other paintings.
The goals of the assignment are to:
1) to consider the issues and concerns of curating a display and the impact of spatial context
2) to consider the differences between historical and ahistorical (whether thematic or revisionist) modes of display
3) to consider one’s own reception of the given artworks and to consider how others might experience them
Based upon the concepts and examples from lecture and tutorial, and considering how spatial circumstances affect viewer
experience, discuss the choices for the display of these two portraits. Imagine you are in the space, experiencing the exhibit.
Basic questions to consider might include:
What kind of narrative is being created by the arrangement of the portraits? Why does this matter?
What assumptions are being made/suggested about the historical figures? How does that skew our understanding?
How might the viewer experience this part of the exhibit? What other associated circumstances might also be factors?
Would you arrange them this way? Why or why not?
What are some other ways in which the images could have been arranged? What are the implications of these choices?
Minimum 750 words, due to me by email as an attachment to ddudley@uvic.ca
Before Monday January 31, 2022 at 3:30PM.
Please see course outline for important details on how to format & submit assignments. Title documents correctly.
mailto:ddudley@uvic.ca
Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan
In 2011, the National Gallery in London held a major exhibition focussing on da Vinci’s
paintings. If you want the complete exhibition guide it can be found near the bottom of the
page at this site:
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/past/leonardo-da-vinci-painter-at-the-court-of-
milan
This assignment is concerned with the display of the paintings
and
Details and images of the two portraits can be found on the next page.
Other works in the room by Leonardo were mostly sketches (hands, animals)
that scholars believe served as studies for the two paintings under discussion.
In this YouTube video at about the 0:50 mark, the curator is being interviewed
in front of the larger painting.
As the camera moves back at 1:03, you can see the arrangement with the
smaller portrait on the wall to the left (clearer than in this screenshot)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv_sP5VM8Vg (there are several other
YouTube videos that may show the space as well – up to you how many you
want to watch).
The two paintings were displayed in Room 2 of the Exhibition, a space organized around the
theme of “Beauty and Love”. In the room, the curator chose to
hang on the half wall, opposite the doorway from Room 1. was hung
on the wall to the left, “looking at” the other portrait. As most scholars identify
as the wife of Ludovico Sforza, this arrangement of paintings created an
interesting dynamic between the two paintings which was commented on by many visitors to the
gallery. Keep in mind, that in their own time, these works were not displayed together.
The Lady with an Ermine
The Belle Ferronnière
The Belle Ferronnière
The Belle Ferronnière
The Lady with an Ermine
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/past/leonardo-da-vinci-painter-at-the-court-of-milan
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/past/leonardo-da-vinci-painter-at-the-court-of-milan
Information excerpted from the exhibition guide
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