Memory Traces: The Intellectual Work of the Line in Leonardo da Vinci’s Drawing Practice

The lecture is dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci’s appropriation of a workshop practice that is generally considered unartistic, the tracing of a graphic template. We will look closely at two drawings, one sketch and one study, to examine how this practice guided a thought process by which Leonardo sought to emancipate himself from his artistic model.

Nicola Suthor teaches Northern and Southern Baroque art at the Yale Department of the History of Art. She looks into the periods of the Renaissance and Enlightenment for a deeper understanding of the 17th century. Her art historical approach deals with ancient as well contemporary aesthetics and art theories as theoretical framework. Her present research project, “Meta/physics of Drawing: Trains of Thought and the Artist’s Line,” is concerned with the 17th-century practice of sketching.

Lorenza Melli is an expert on the history of 15th-century Italian drawing. She studied at the University of Florence with Mina Gregori and has taught on the history of drawing at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Florence. She is curator of conferences and collections of studies, having collaborated on national and international exhibitions with essays and entries on the drawings on display. Currently she is preparing the Corpora of Botticelli’s and Verrocchio's drawings.

Scientific Organization: Francesca Borgo and Alice Ottazzi (Lise Meitner Group)