Leonardo da Vinci, hack?

A couple of weekends ago, went to Portland and whilst there went to Powell's Book store which has got to be one of the best stores anywhere.

It's good with lots of art books.

Got a book by Niki de Saint Phalle which is pretty cool... I remember once seeing one of her paintings before I painted myself and I think it was an impetus (one of many) that got me going. I had no idea that she had done as much as she has, really lived the life of an artist that's for dang sure.

Did some stuff like shooting her paintings and letting them bleed oil out but mostly I think she's famous for her sculptures, here's a link:http://www.csupomona.edu/~plin/women2/images/stphalle_big.jpg

Also got a book about all the Last Suppers that have ever been painted although I'm not sure the book contains ALL the last suppers ever painted. Maybe just the highlights of the Last Supper paintings.

By far (at least I think) the BEST one is the one by Leonardo Da Vinci and it makes me re-evaluate him because I used to think he was severely overrated.

Maybe that's bound to happen when a guy paints the most popular painting of all time, The Mona Lisa, that he's going to get a little backlash.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41123000/jpg/_41123916_monalisa_203.jpg

http://www.mystudios.com/treasure/davinci/davinci-ermine.jpg

See what I mean, they kind of suck (but in a good way)....

but this Last Supper, boy it's pretty good....
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/l/leonardo/lastsupp.jpg

DaVinci painted at the same time as Michelangelo and Raphael which was news to me and they all knew about each other. I think DaVinci was the oldest and Raphael the youngest with Michelangelo being the genius.

The time in which they lived was a raucous chaotic time, with crusades and wars and people trying to take over other people and Popes (Julius II) leading armies himself despite his afflictions which included syphillis. There were prostitutes everywhere, and mistresses and affairs and who KNOWS what else. The woman who is the subject of the Mona Lisa was probably a mistress of a wealthy man who wanted her portrait.

At one point, Michelangelo proposed that Da Vinci's plan to build a bridge from the tip of Italy to Sicily or somepin like that be actually put into operation but nothing ever happened along those lines.

So all these guys were sorta loping all over Italy, doing stuff here and there, going to Rome for the big projects (The Pope's Tomb, etc.) being inspired by the others. Raphael and Da Vinci were not afraid to partake in all that there was to offer a famous artist, but it seems like Michelangelo did not live the high life (except when on top of the scaffolding of the Sistine Chapel, ha ha) probably because apparently he was one ugly dude. Here's his self-portrait:
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sistine/0-Michel.jpg

He was one of these guys who are perpetually put upon, with problems in his family and problems with money constantly on his mind. He didn't want to be in Rome because he thought it was unhealthy and longed for the comfort of his home town, Florence. At a moment's notice, or if a war threatened, he would hightail it back to Florence and the pope would get pissed off and drag his ass back, with Michelangelo complaining the whole way.

I recommend a book I recently read about the whole time called Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel by Ross King. I hadn't really ever had put Michelangelo in an historical period in my mind other than I had a vague idea that he was kind of ancient, so he came alive to me when I read this book.

The Sistine Chapel ceiling sound really amazing and some dude, Dante or somebody, said something like it just goes to show you what one man is capable of (the power of the quote lost in my paraphrase) and it sure would be something to see.

http://history.hanover.edu/courses/art/micsis5.jpg

Before they tear it down and put in a Wal-mart I mean.