{"id":59664,"date":"2019-09-19T15:57:46","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T19:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=59664"},"modified":"2025-09-30T10:45:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:45:56","slug":"reproducing-leonardo-francois-pelletier","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/reproducing-leonardo-francois-pelletier\/","title":{"rendered":"Reproducing Leonardo: Portrait of Lucrezia Crivelli Takes Shape"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Reproducing Leonardo: Portrait of Lucrezia Crivelli Takes Shape\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Almost as long as there has been Renaissance art, there have been artists who make their living reproducing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far back as 16th<\/sup> century, Italian street artists were re-creating Renaissance masterpieces in the piazzas of Rome and Florence. They worked with chalk, charcoal and coloured stones, and their art often had religious themes. That earned them the name Madonarri \u2013 which translates roughly as the painters of our lady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Reproducing
Ottawa’s modern-day Madonarro, Francois Pelletier, re-creating Leonardo’s portrait of Lucrezia Crivelli.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Today, Madonarri have access to art supplies like pastels that allow them to make even more faithful reproductions, and their work is celebrated at festivals in Europe, North America and Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of Cinquecento \u2013 Carleton University\u2019s year-long celebration of the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci<\/a> — Ottawa\u2019s own modern-day Madonarro, Francois Pelletier, is re-creating Leonardo\u2019s portrait of Lucrezia Crivelli in the Galleria on the fourth floor of the University Centre. From September 18 to 20, Pelletier is working with pastels on a canvas that was specially prepared to mimic the texture of a sidewalk.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Leonardo<\/figure>\n\n\n

Re-creating Renaissance Masterpieces<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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He began making street art in Ottawa\u2019s Byward Market in the late 1990s, and has been working as a Madonarro ever since. During the summer months, he travels to festivals in Europe, and during our winter, he heads to Australia, where the southern summer is more suitable for outdoor artistic pursuits. In between, he does commissions like this one. He has re-created Caravaggio paintings for Canada\u2019s National Gallery of Art, and album art for well-known musical acts like Pearl Jam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pelletier estimates that he\u2019s recreated the portrait of Lucrezia Crivelli at least 10 times over the years, and he\u2019s studied the original work closely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Reproducing<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Pelletier spent a season working in the square outside of Centre Pompidou in Paris, the city\u2019s major modern and contemporary art museum. During his time there, he\u2019d head to the Louvre to study the classical works to reproduce. Masses of tourists crowded in to see the Mona Lisa, but mostly ignored the portrait Lucrezia Crivelli. This meant that Pelletier could study the painting, which is believed to portray a mistress of the Duke of Milan.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cLeonardo used the sfumato<\/em> technique to blend colors together at if they are a mist,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cPastels allow us to do those effects really well — especially on sidewalks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Leonardo<\/figure>\n\n\n

\u201cTalking to people is a big part of it — to teach people what you’re doing”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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But the marble floors at the University Centre aren\u2019t as conducive to sfumato<\/em>, so Pelletier is using a canvas with a texture that he compares to sandpaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSidewalks are porous, and you can actually mix chalk and pastels when you work on them. On the canvas, I can do very similar techniques, but it is more precise and laborious to achieve the same result. It takes a bit more time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Reproducing<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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It will take three days for Pelletier to complete the portrait, and he invites the Carleton community to come to the University Centre and observe the creative process.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cTalking to people is a big part of it — to teach people what you’re doing,\u201d says Pelletier.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always enjoyed reproducing classical masters directly on the pavement, in public places. In cities, you always work in a place where there are enough passersby to make money. People want to take pictures and appreciate the art. Because Madonarri is busking \u2013 it\u2019s a public performance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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—
\nMore Stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost as long as there has been Renaissance art, there have been artists who make their living reproducing it. As far back as 16th century, Italian street artists were re-creating Renaissance masterpieces in the piazzas of Rome and Florence. They worked with chalk, charcoal and coloured stones, and their art often had religious themes. That […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":59665,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[28],"cu_story_tag":[1919],"class_list":["post-59664","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-community-partnerships","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-science"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/59664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/59664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97397,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/59664\/revisions\/97397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=59664"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=59664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}