Digital Editions
Newsletters
Subscribe
Digital Editions
Newsletters
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Leonardo da Vinci
archive

Rival Buccleuch and Montreal “Madonnas of the Yarnwinder” to be judged side by side in Edinburgh

Leonardo da Vinci showdown comes to the National Gallery of Scotland

The Art Newspaper
1 December 1991
Share

One of the most discussed Italian Renaissance pictures in Scotland, the Duke of Buccleuch’s putative Leonardo da Vinci “Madonna of the Yarnwinder”, is shortly to come under even closer scrutiny. The national press seized on the announcement that the Buccleuch painting is to be examined in the context of an exhibition at the National Gallery of Scotland (15 May-12 July 1992), the Daily Telegraph stating excitedly that “its double recently turned up in America”. In fact the New York version in question is already well known, residing in the Reeford Collection in Montreal.

The image was clearly one of Leonardo’s most popular, since as the exhibition’s organiser, Professor Martin Kemp of St Andrew’s University (and one of the doyens of Leonardo studies) points out,

“Of the many versions known, at least a dozen closely resemble the Buccleuch picture”; the National Gallery of Scotland even has its own, albeit of poor quality.

The Buccleuch and New York pictures will be shown in the Edinburgh exhibition, along with an impressive array of comparative material including drawings lent from the Royal Collection, Chatsworth, the Louvre, the Venice Accademia, the British Museum and elsewhere.

Professor Kemp dismisses any idea of the exhibition’s being an “either/or battle between the two versions”. He says the show will be “a workshop exhibition” and hopes to determine “whether there was a common Leonardo cartoon for them all”.

Of the Buccleuch picture, he says that it “stands a very good chance of being by Leonardo in the broadest sense of the word...there is some Leonardo in it”, a cautious retreat from the greater certainty expressed by previous scholars. Emil Moeller wrote in favour of Leonardo’s involvement in the Burlington Magazine in 1926, as did Cecil Gould, David Caritt (“a large part...is Leonardo’s own”) and, after prolonged indecisions in print, Lord Clark. The picture became the centrepiece of the 1939 Leonardo exhibition in Milan, but since then has received little public attention.

The Duke of Buccleuch comments that in spite of the flurry of attention given to his painting in the national press (with values such as £20 million being mentioned) there is no question of its leaving the family collection.

Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Enigma and variations'

Leonardo da VinciAttributionRenaissanceNational Galleries of ScotlandProvenance
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Data protection
Privacy policy
Frequently Asked Questions
Subscription T&Cs
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Follow us
Instagram
Bluesky
LinkedIn
Facebook
TikTok
YouTube
© The Art Newspaper

Related content

Leonardo da Vinciarchive
31 August 2011

Salvator Mundi in London: Your first chance to see the “new” Leonardo

How the National Gallery negotiated a record eight loans including a long-lost canvas, Saviour of the World

Martin Bailey
Leonardo da Vincinews
1 November 2024

Leonardo Cartoon was ‘presentation drawing’ in Florence commission bid

Leonardo’s largest known drawing was hung with the Mona Lisa in his studio, says Per Rumberg, the curator of the Royal Academy’s Florentine Old Masters exhibition opening this month

Martin Bailey
Leonardo da Vinciarchive
1 November 2007

Buccleuch family Leonardo found

Ninth Duke did not live to see his painting returned

Martin Bailey