I,
Leonardo - Ralph Steadman (1983)
(Readers of RXTT’s Book Journey may have noticed
a lack of new reviews on the blog. The
end of 2023 was a brutal time for the RXTT household. What should have been a time of joy, just
after celebrating our wedding anniversary, became one of the lowest points of
my life. Soon after my dogs and I fought
back against a vicious pit bull attack, an extremely traumatic event in and of
itself, my employment situation became untenable, after five-plus years of
exemplary work.
As you may imagine, these events brought me to a
low place, and reading, absorbing and writing about books became somewhat of an
afterthought. Apart from the love and
support of my wife, which is always treasured, what pulled me out of the
melancholia was my novel, IN CRED. I had
completed the bulk of it in 2023, but the first part of 2024 was spent
finalizing it and getting the book published.
It is available here. The joy of creation is infectious, and by July
my novel was in the hands of many readers.
At the same time, after months of looking, I secured a new position. As a book lover, I always fantasized about
working in a library. The very idea of
it fills me with bookish glee. The fact
that the library is an exceedingly beautiful one is just overkill. As one of my gurus, Robert Anton Wilson once
said, the journey to enlightenment must always pass through “castle perilous”
first, meaning nothing worthwhile, whether in life, spirituality, or
psychedelia, comes without experiencing the bottom edge of fear and despair. If it wasn’t for the brutal slap-down life
gave me in late 2023, I would not be where I am now, in late 2024. I hope to renew my regular book review
postings, and share with you some of the amazing books I now have access to.
Thanks for your continued support. – RXTT)
Sometimes serendipity brings one access to a
previously desired item. I have spent
the past decades in deep admiration of one Ralph Steadman, an English gentleman
whose artwork is crazed and transgressive, and whose collaborations with my
favorite journalist, Hunter S. Thompson, blew my mind apart as a young man. Steadman’s illustrations combine high
draughtsmanship with visceral experimentation, often exposing the inner horrors
normally disguised by people’s outward appearances. When people ask me who my favorite visual
artist is, my answer is Ralph Steadman.
After my initial exposure to Ralph Steadman’s
art, I saw him as a kindred spirit and a personal muse. I looked to find as many of his books as I
could. The one book I wanted but was
never able to collect was his first one, I,
Leonardo. My new employment has
afforded me the greatest of gifts, the ability to check out and absorb I, Leonardo, directly from the library shelves!
As a young man, Ralph Steadman was fascinated by
Leonardo da Vinci, as I am and I am sure many other fellow artists are. He is a fascinating individual, especially
once you read about the world he lived in and the insane life he led. Ralph Steadman’s first contact with Leonardo
da Vinci was a fortuitous occasion, where he found a paperback copy of
Leonardo’s notebooks, a near-perfect amalgam of art, science, and genius, loved
and cherished by Steadman to this day. In
I, Leonardo, Steadman created a
magical work, using his own unique art to portray the events of Leonardo’s
life, while the text functions as if the artist himself relates his life story.
It is a clever conceit, and one that works well. I soon found myself lost in the ever-troubled
world of Renaissance Italy.
As Leonardo ages and tells his story, his
inventiveness and mechanical ingenuity come to the fore. From an early age, he devised contraptions to
aid in the manual labors of the home, to better understand the natural world
around him, and sometimes to create frivolous fun in a world severely lacking
in such. He describes making extra money
because he could easily achieve great likenesses with his drawing skills. After a lengthy apprenticeship, he began to
look for commissions, slowly building up his network of friends, patrons, and
cohorts.
Many of Leonardo da Vinci’s commissions were
never completed, or at least he never thought them good enough for his personal
taste. This was largely due to the
volatile times in which he found himself.
Artists always lived and died by their patronage, and in the Italian
states of the 15th century, those in power rarely retained their
position for long. For example, Leonardo
would move to Milan, find a patron, usually a Duke or Bishop of some sort, and be
commissioned to create some sort of magnificent fresco, painting, or engineering
design. He would dive in, work hard, and
often, just as he was to complete a work, would lose his patron to political
upheaval, or a change in the religious leadership. Due to the recurrence of such situations,
Leonardo began to take his sweet time preparing and finishing work. He was concerned with experimentation, with
new techniques and materials, and due to this he could not work as fast as his
contemporaries such as Michelangelo or Raphael.
Even a work he finished, such as the Last Supper masterpiece, was
damaged by floods within a few months of completion.
Whether due to his constant experimentation with
materials, or the varied whims of his patrons, Ralph Steadman surmises that
Leonardo willfully slowed down his work so as to serve the art and not the
master. Speaking through Leonardo, Steadman
describes how infatuated Leonardo became with the sitter for the world-famous
Mona Lisa, or as Leonardo would call her, his Madonna Lisa, having her come for
extra sessions, and noting that her specific beauty was best captured in the
soft light of the waning day. Leonardo
never delivered this painting to the husband who commissioned it, instead
choosing to keep it for himself.
Much like Leonardo’s own notebooks, many of the
large artworks in this book are accompanied by Ralph Steadman’s preliminary
sketches. This allows an artist like
myself to see the process by which Ralph Steadman conjures up his visions. Awesome.
This was a labor of love, and Steadman’s admiration of Leonardo da Vinci
shines through in every page. Not only
is it a great primer on the life of one of the world’s foremost artists and
engineers, but it is a great introduction to anyone looking to learn more about
Steadman’s work. The reverence he holds
for Leonardo shows in the relatively restrained artwork, showing a greater
feeling for form, perspective, and narrative than Steadman’s normal, and
notoriously chaotic, images do. As is
the norm with Ralph Steadman, the portraits of aristocrats and powerful
religious figures are scathing grotesqueries, showing the reader the true
ugliness hidden beneath the trappings and finery of the supposed “elite.”
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Much like Rudy Rucker’s As Above, So Below: A Novel of Peter Bruegel, I was captivated by the immersion into the artist’s world, times, and life. The true originals, such as Leonardo da Vinci, or Ralph Steadman himself, use their skills and acumen to show us something new, something which no one before or since can capture in quite the same manner. In doing so they transcend the limits of time, language, culture, etc. The created work exists, and that is what matters. We are all the luckier for it. I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking an overview of Leonardo’s life, or an introduction to the amazing artwork of Ralph Steadman.
(Signed copies of I, Leonardo can be purchased here: https://www.ralphsteadman.com/collection/i-leonardo/ )
Beautifully written.
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