'Il non finito', 'Nothing', and 'Second Nature' in Joseph Gantner's 'Leonardo's Visionen'

Extract

Our obligations to Gantner, keeper of the Woelfflin legacy and lively educator at Basle University, are considerable. Not only has he spotted neglected issues in the thought and work of Leonardo, but the very faults of his recent book tend to give new impetus to our thinking about Leonardo. It is not to lessen but to specify Gantner's merits, if one feels that, as distinct from the dedicated philology and presentation of the relevant materials, which he has handled beautifully, there remain questions of proportion, of adequacy and philosophy in the interpretation of these documents.

Every age, nation, generation, and representative mouthpiece selects from the cultural heritage the materials and viewpoints most nearly like itself. Thus it comes about that we have that many Platos, Shakespeares (especially Hamlets), and now according to Gantner the ‘fourth Leonardo’, his own.