The Path to Creativity Part II: The Hand of the Artist

Think about it, nobody will ever do what you do today or any other day.  No one in the history of humankind will pick up a pen the way you do, or sit at a table writing in the manner you do, in your animal skin, with your degree of intention, or your state of mind.  In a similar fashion, yes, maybe but no man, woman or child will ever have your specific experience, there will never be another you creating what you do, in just the way you do it.  Creativity is that, a unique expression through an individual body, mind, and spirit. And it is so unique that art historians stake their reputations on authenticating artworks by identifying the hand of the artist. They look at the brushstrokes and compare them to known works; they look at the manner of application; they examine the pigments and ascertain their origins.  They research the provenance of a work of art, the records of who owned it when and where.  And, of course, they consider the image itself, to determine whether or not it is the real deal.

Martin Kemp, an art historian at Oxford University says on the subject of attribution, "[t]he initial thing is just that immediate reaction..."  In 2009, Kemp rocked the art world when he re-attributed a drawing originally thought to be a German work from the early 19th century, to be by Leonardo da Vinci from the late 15th century.  He calls it  "La Bella Principessa,"  and it is an exquisite portrait of a young woman in profile. She looks to be around fifteen, dressed in the style of the Renaissance in Europe, with an elaborately knotted hair- wrapping around her long brown hair.

My immediate reaction, is that she is about to speak, so filled with life is this image.  Yet, there is nothing other than the period clothes to convince me that it is an original da Vinci. But then it does look similar to his oil painting known as Lady with an Ermine.  The facial expressions in both are gentle and tender, not as mysterious as the Mona Lisa. The drawing of La Bella Pincipessa  is controlled and not as expressive as his well known late self-portrait;  it has great details  similar to his tempera painting, Madonna Litta, c. 1490-91, the hair, the lips the garments are rendered divine.

As a painter, I know it is entirely possible to create something unlike anything else you have created, easy in fact, especially if it is in a different medium and period in the timeline of your career. All the more difficult to make attribution certain. Kemp has written an entire book about his study of this drawing and he says he has not "the slightest doubt."  Opinions of other scholars vary and perhaps there will never be a definitive answer to the mystery behind the hand on this one.

Few have a body of work to compare to Leonardo da Vinci's, but we all have our own unique expression.

For more on the fascinating story of La Bella Principessa see: www.newyorker.com

To discover the answer to the mystery check out this PBS video on the story: http://www.video.pbs.org/video/2189483449