An energetic shift of repression put an end to this infantile excess, and
established the dispositions which became manifest in the years of puberty. The
most striking result of this transformation was a turning away from all gross
sensual activities. Leonardo was able to lead a life of abstinence and made the
impression of an asexual person. When the floods of pubescent excitement came
over the boy they did not make him ill by forcing him to costly and harmful
substitutive formations; owing to the early
preference for sexual inquisitiveness,decorative paintings, the greater part of the sexual needs
could be sublimated into a general thirst after knowledge and so elude
repression. A much smaller portion of the libido was applied to sexual aims, and
represented the stunted sexual life of the grown up. In consequence of the
repression of the love for the mother this portion assumed a homosexual attitude
and manifested itself as ideal love for boys. The fixation on the mother, as
well as the happy reminiscences of his relations with her,oil paintings on canvas for sale, was preserved in his
unconscious but remained for the time in an inactive state. In this manner the
repression, fixation, and sublimation participated in the disposal of the
contributions which the sexual impulse furnished to Leonardo's psychic life.
From the obscure age of boyhood Leonardo appears to us as an artist, a
painter, and sculptor, thanks to a specific talent which was probably enforced
by the early awakening of the impulse for looking in the first years of
childhood. We would gladly report in what way the artistic activity depends on
the psychic primitive forces were it not that
our material is inadequate just here. We content ourselves by emphasizing the
fact,original oil paintings, concerning which hardly any doubt still exists, that the productions of
the artist give outlet also to his sexual desire, and in the case of Leonardo we
can refer to the information imparted by Vasari, namely, that heads of laughing
women and pretty boys, or representations of his sexual objects, attracted
attention among his first artistic attempts. It seems that during his
flourishing youth Leonardo at first worked in an uninhibited manner. As he took
his father as a model for his outer conduct in life, he passed through a period
of manly creative power and artistic productivity in Milan,oil paintings for sale, where favored by
fate he found a substitute for his father in the duke Lodovico Moro. But the
experience of others was soon confirmed in him, to wit, that the almost complete
suppression of the real sexual life does not furnish the most favorable
conditions for the activity of the sublimated sexual strivings. The
figurativeness of his sexual life asserted itself, his activity and ability to
quick decisions began to weaken, the tendency to reflection and delay was already noticeable as a disturbance in The Holy
Supper, and with the influence of the technique determined the fate of this
magnificent work. Slowly a process developed in him which can be put parallel
only to the regressions of neurotics. His development at puberty into the artist
was outstripped by the early infantile determinant of the investigator,art oil paintings for sale, the
second sublimation of his erotic impulses turned back to the primitive one which
was prepared at the first repression. He became an investigator, first in
service of his art, later independently and away from his art. With the loss of
his patron, the substitute for his father, and with the increasing difficulties
in his life, the regressive displacement extended in dimension. He became
"impacientissimo al pennello" (most impatient with the brush) as reported
by a correspondent of the countess Isabella d'Este who desired to possess at any
cost a painting from his hand.His infantile past had obtained control over him. The investigation, however,
which now took the place of his artistic production, seems to have born certain traits which betrayed the activity of
unconscious impulses; this was seen in his insatiability, his regardless
obstinacy, and in his lack of ability to adjust himself to actual
conditions. art oil paintings online
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