Vem hade längst skägg da Vinci, Michelangelo eller Raphael?

Det ramlade in ett så roligt mejl som svar på min recension av utställningen :and there was light. Kan inte låta bli att delge er mejlet i sin helhet. Det finns också gömt bland kommentarerna till https://www.tomatsallad.nu/and-there-was-light/

”The history/art history teacher in me can’t resist answering one of your questions: ”Rafael, Michelangelo och Leonardo… vilka var de? De föddes väl inte som grånade mästare med grått långt skägg?”

Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452, so probably didn’t start growing a beard till c.1467 when he was an apprentice. He probably _did_ have a beard (though not a grey one) by 1478, the year of his first independent commission as a Master painter. 

Meanwhile Michelangelo Buonarroti was born in 1475, so definitly unbearded when Leonardo started painting. He was probably still smooth-cheeked in 1479 when he was painting so well in the studios of his teacher Ghirlandaio that his father could make the Master agree to pay him full wages (instead of just giving him board and lodging as an apprentice). 

I expect Michelangelo was cultivating his beard by 1483 though, which was when Raphael Sanzio was born in Urbino. Raphael himself remained a beardless boy until well into his 20s (see his self-portraits, as a teenager: http://bit.ly/aLQmKd and as a 23 year-old: http://bit.ly/aNSgC5), but even he succumbed eventually to hairiness.

Although representing different generations, all three were active as artists and studied one another’s work (and beards), in particular between 1513 and 1516 when they all worked at the same time in Rome. Raphael had certainly admired Leonard’s graying beard before 1513, though, because he portrayed Leonardo as Socrates (the figure pointing up) in the School of Athens fresco from 1511 (http://bit.ly/8AYSNG). He painted his own portrait (now bearded) as Plato in the same picture. (The figure in discussion with Leonard, with his hand stretched out, palm down.) ”

Bild av Skolan i Aten eller Scuola di Atene, den berömda fresken av Rafael där både Rafel själv, Leonardo da Vinci och Michelangelo finns med. Enligt Wikipedia har Leonardo agerat modell för Platon (den hårfagre mannen i mitten som pekar uppåt). Mannen i tänkarpose nederst-i-mitten är Michelangelo/Herakleitos. Han är ditritat i efterhand av Rafael. Rafael själv, skägglös, tittar fram längs ut till höger. Även hans älskarinna finns med, två gubbar till höger om Michelangelo.

”Leonardo and Michaelangelo had had a chance to size up one another’s beards earlier when they were both commissioned to paint murals in the Hall of Five Hundred in Florence early in the 1500s. There are many stories about how they disliked one another and disagreed with one another’s artistic philosophies. I don’t think anyone has suggested they were also offended by the cut or colour of one another’s beards, but given the animosity in the stories, even that seems possible.

Of the three, Leonardo was certainly the most hirsute (http://bit.ly/9uUk3J) while Michaelangelo surely won the Greyest Greybeard contest as he lived to the ripe old age of 88 (http://bit.ly/bL9UzB). Raphael, though, died in 1520 at the age of 37, so I would guess he wasn’t even beginning to grey.”

Vill du läsa mer av författaren till ovanstående, John Nixon aka the Supercargo, så finns han på www.thesupercargo.com.