Leonardo da Vinci Paintings, Drawings, Quotes And Inventions

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Famous Artworks

The Mona Lisa - by Leonardo Da Vinci

Portrait of Mona Lisa, also known as La Gioconda, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo; This painting is painted as oil on wood. The original painting size is77 x 53 cm (30 x 20 7/8 in) and is owned by by the Government of France and is on the wall in the Louvre in Paris, France.
This figure of a woman, dressed in the Florentine fashion of her day and seated in a visionary, mountainous landscape, is a remarkable instance of Leonardo's sfumato technique of soft, heavily shaded modeling. The Mona Lisa's enigmatic expression, which seems both alluring and aloof, has given the portrait universal fame.

 The Mona Lisa's famous smile represents the sitter in the same way that the juniper branches represent Ginevra Benci and the ermine represents Cecilia Gallerani in their portraits, in Washington and Krakow respectively. It is a visual representation of the idea of happiness suggested by the word "gioconda" in Italian. Leonardo made this notion of happiness the central motif of the portrait: it is this notion which makes the work such an ideal. The nature of the landscape also plays a role. The middle distance, on the same level as the sitter's chest, is in warm colors. Men live in this space: there is a winding road and a bridge. This space represents the transition between the space of the sitter and the far distance, where the landscape becomes a wild and uninhabited space of rocks and water which stretches to the horizon, which Leonardo has cleverly drawn at the level of the sitter's eyes.

The painting was among the first portraits to depict the sitter before an imaginary landscape and Leonardo was one of the first painters to use aerial perspective. The enigmatic woman is portrayed seated in what appears to be an open loggia with dark pillar bases on either side. Behind her a vast landscape recedes to icy mountains. Winding paths and a distant bridge give only the slightest indications of human presence. The sensuous curves of the woman's hair and clothing, created through sfumato, are echoed in the undulating imaginary valleys and rivers behind her. The blurred outlines, graceful figure, dramatic contrasts of light and dark, and overall feeling of calm are characteristic of da Vinci's style. Due to the expressive synthesis that da Vinci achieved between sitter and landscape it is arguable whether Mona Lisa should be considered as a traditional portrait, for it represents an ideal rather than a real woman. The sense of overall harmony achieved in the painting especially apparent in the sitter's faint smile reflects the idea of a link connecting humanity and nature.

In the Renaissance which brought together all human activities, art meant science, art meant truth to life: Leonardo da Vinci was a great figure because he embodied the epic Endeavour of Italian art to conquer universal values: he who combined within himself the fluctuating sensitivity of the artist and the deep wisdom of the scientist, he, the poet and the master.

In his Mona Lisa, the individual, a sort of miraculous creation of nature, represents at the same time the species: the portrait goes beyond its social limitations and acquires a universal meaning. Although Leonardo worked on this picture as a scholar and thinker, not only as a painter and poet, the scientific and philosophical aspects of his research inspired no following. But the formal aspect - the new presentation, the nobler attitude and the increased dignity of the model - had a decisive influence over Florentine portraits of the next twenty years, over the classical portrait. With his Mona Lisa, Leonardo created a new formula, at the same time more monumental and more lively, more concrete and yet more poetic than that of his predecessors. Before him, portraits had lacked mystery; artists only represented outward appearances without any soul, or, if they showed the soul, they tried to express it through gestures, symbolic objects or inscriptions. The Mona Lisa alone is a living enigma: the soul is there, but inaccessible.

Details of Mona Lisa Painting

Detail 1 - Her smile

The most enigmatic and most sought after factor in the painting of Mona Lisa is its smile. This is understood that her smile has a number of things hidden.The most starking feature is that a viewer finds different shades in her smile.


Detail 2 - Her hands

Detail of Lisa's hands, her right hand resting on her left. Da Vinci chose this gesture rather than a wedding ring to depict Lisa as a virtuous woman and faithful wife.


Detail 3 - The background

The entire background of the Mona Lisa is a landscape. The subject is not placed under an open sky. Compared with other portraits, the Mona Lisa takes in the greatest distance, the most water, the densest atmosphere, the loftiest peaks. It also seems to be more than just a background, to be a additional imposing presence within the picture, the expanse and curvature indicating no mere scene but a portion of the globe itself.

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Famous Artworks

The Last Supper - by Leonardo Da Vinci

The last supper is a mural painting painted from 1495 to 1498 on the back wall of the dining hall at the Dominican convent of Sta Maria delle Grazie in Italy.
Last Supper is Leonardo's visual interpretation of an event chronicled in all four of the Gospels (books in the Christian New Testament). The evening before Christ was betrayed by one of his disciples, he gathered them together to eat, tell them he knew what was coming and wash their feet (a gesture symbolizing that all were equal under the eyes of the Lord). As they ate and drank together, Christ gave the disciples explicit instructions on how to eat and drink in the future, in remembrance of him. It was the first celebration of the Eucharist, a ritual still performed.

Specifically, Last Supper depicts the next few seconds in this story after Christ dropped the bombshell that one disciple would betray him before sunrise, and all twelve have reacted to the news with different degrees of horror, anger and shock.

The painting was made using experimental pigments directly on the dry plaster wall and unlike frescos, where the pigments are mixed with the wet plaster, it has not stood the test of time well. Even before it was finished there were problems with the paint flaking from the wall and Leonardo had to repair it. Over the years it has crumbled, been vandalized bombed and restored. Today we are probably looking at very little of the original.

Much of the recent interest in the painting has centred on the details hidden within the painting, but in directing attention to these 'hidden' details, most people miss the incredible sense of perspective the work displays. The sharp angling of the walls within the picture, which lead back to the seemingly distant back wall of the room and the windows that show the hills and sky beyond. The type of day shown through these windows adds to the feeling of serenity that rests in the centre of the piece, around the figure of Christ.

Details of The Last Supper Painting

Detail 1 - Jesus

Jesus looks sad but peaceful in the painting.


Detail 2 - Mysterious Da Vinci Code

In the fictional book 'The Da Vinci Code', Daniel Brown has his character Teabing suggest that the figure seated to Jesus' right is not the disciple John but is instead Mary Magdalene. The theory, suggested several times in the past, is that Jesus married Mary and after the crucifixion she had a child by him.


Detail 3 - The painting with names of Apostles labeled

From left to right:
Bartholomew, James, Judas Iscariot, Peter, John, Jesus, Thomas, James the Greater, Philip, Matthew, Jude Thaddeus and Simon the Zealot.

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Famous Artworks

The Annunciation - by Leonardo Da Vinci

The first work of the twenty-year old master, The Annunciation is not yet what one would call Leonardesque. The composition follows a centuries old model with the angel on the left, the Virgin on the right, and a lectern in between; the whole depicted in an architectural setting that opens out onto a landscape. The kneeling angel is magnificently youthful with his high forehead, stylized wings, rich clothing, and lily. The Virgin,, surprised while reading, raises her hand in a gesture of astonishment, and displays a fine-featured face which some have described as cold. Her pose, with knees evenly spread and covered with broad and supple drapery, gives her a strong monumental character.
 
When the Annunciation came to the Uffizi in 1867, from the Olivetan monastery of San Bartolomeo, near Florence, it was ascribed to Domenico Ghirlandaio, who was, like Leonardo, an apprentice in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio. In 1869, Karl Eduard von Liphart, the central figure of the German expatriate art colony in Florence, recognized it as a youthful work by Leonardo da Vinci, one of the first attributions of a surviving work to the youthful Leonardo. Since then a preparatory drawing for the angel's sleeve has been recognized and attributed to Leonardo.

Verrocchio used lead-based paint and heavy brush strokes. He left a note for Leonardo to finish the background and the angel. Leonardo used light brush strokes and no lead. When the Annunciation was x-rayed, Verrocchio's work was evident while Leonardo's angel was invisible.

The product of a collaborative efforts in Verrocchiio's studio, this picture is nonetheless a masterful achievement and proof of Leonardo da Vinci's innate pictorial talent. Everything in this work is of a high poetic and stylistic quality: the handling of the figures and their attributes, the spatial construction, and the distant trees and watercourse, which attest to the artist's enduring love of nature. Many changes were to come in his painting, for da Vinci was a tireless innovator, but this picture would suffice to rank him among the greatest.

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Famous Artworks

The Adoration of the Magi - by Leonardo Da Vinci

The Adoration of the Magi is an early painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo was given the commission by the Augustinian monks of San Donato a Scopeto in Florence, but departed for Milan the following year, leaving the painting unfinished. It has been in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence since 1670.
The Virgin Mary and Child are depicted in the foreground and form a triangular shape with the Magi kneeling in adoration. Behind them is a semicircle of accompanying figures, including what may be a self-portrait of the young Leonardo (on the far right). In the background on the left is the ruin of a pagan building, on which workmen can be seen, apparently repairing it. On the right are men on horseback fighting, and a sketch of a rocky landscape.

The ruins are a possible reference to the Basilica of Maxentius, which, according to Medieval legend, the Romans claimed would stand until a virgin gave birth. It is supposed to have collapsed on the night of Christ's birth (in fact it was not even built until a later date). The ruins dominate a preparatory perspective drawing by Leonardo, which also includes the fighting horsemen. The palm tree in the centre has associations with the Virgin Mary, partly due to the phrase 'You are stately as a palm tree' from the Song of Solomon, which is believed to prefigure her. Another aspect of the palm tree can be the usage of the palm tree as a symbol of victory for ancient Rome, whereas in Christianity it is a representation of martyrdom—triumph over death—so in conclusion we can say that the palm in general represents triumph. The other tree in the painting is from the carob family, the seeds from the tree are used as a unit of measurement. They measure valuable stones and jewels. This tree and its seeds are associated with crowns suggesting Christ as the king of kings or the Virgin as the future Queen of heaven, also that this is nature's gift to the new born Christ. As with Michelangelo's Doni Tondo the background is probably supposed to represent the Pagan world supplanted by the Christian world, as inaugurated by the events in the foreground.

The Adoration of the Magi is perhaps one of Leonardo da Vinci's strangest and most fertile compositions. By combining figures of pleading old men and armed horsemen, he transformed a banal biblical subject into a scene from human history. At the same time, he took the technique of non finito to its extreme. The figures and architectural elements boldly delineated and filled out in earth colors on the five boards that make up this panel anticipate the type of sketchwork that will characterize modern art. This picture is remarkable for its extreme concentration and power. Leornardo's contemporaries erroneously assumed that it was unfinished.

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Famous Artworks

The Virgin of the Rocks - by Leonardo Da Vinci

The Virgin of the Rocks (sometimes The Madonna of the Rocks) is the name used for two Leonardo da Vinci's paintings, of the same subject, and of a composition which is identical except for two significant details. One painting usually hangs in the Louvre, Paris, and the other in the National Gallery, London. Both paintings show the Madonna and Christ Child with the infant John the Baptist and an angel, in a rocky setting which gives the paintings their usual name. The significant compositional differences are in the gaze and right hand of the angel. There are many minor ways in which the works differ, including the colours, the lighting, the flora, and the way in which sfumato has been used. Although the date of an associated commission is documented, the complete histories of the two paintings are unknown, and lead to speculation about which of the two is earlier.
 
A wish to get to the heart of nature and know the secrets was perhaps Leonardo da Vinci's main impetus in everything he did; and such interest as he had in painting might almost have been to set up rivals to nature, fusing all his knowledge of her into the creation of things super-natural. In The Virgin of the Rocks the laws are nature's but the final creation Leonardo's. And he here defies the natural in many ways that cut across previous artistic assumptions. The result is organic rather than intellectual. Other painters threw a deliberate schema over nature, seeing it in terms of conscious mingling, enriched by art, whereby buildings were allied to scenery, minor groups of figures enlivened background spaces, and objects were artistically re-arranged to mirror a cosmic order. This showed the artist's invention. In this painting Leonardo designs a grotto which is marvelous for seeming not human work at all. It appears the product of natural forces: the rocks ribbed and smoothed by the constant motion of water, present in the winding river but felt in the subaqueous light and as giving moisture for the plants - each recorded with botanical accuracy - that grow so thickly and yet are pallid.

It still seems a region untrodden by man, because the figures who kneel in the grotto have something of the same inevitable growing quality as the plants; they are no stranger in their setting, and there is no sense of their incongruity within it.


Louvre version
The Virgin of the Rocks which usually hangs in the Louvre is considered by most art historians to be the earlier of the two and date from around 1483-1486. Most authorities agree that the work is entirely by Leonardo. It is about 8 cm (3 in) taller than the London version. The first certain record of this picture is in 1625, when it was in the French royal collection. It is generally accepted that this painting was produced to fulfill a commission of 1483 in Milan. It is hypothesised that this painting was privately sold by Leonardo and that the London version was painted at a later date to fill the commission. There are a number of other theories to explain the existence of two paintings. This painting is regarded as a perfect example of Leonardo's "sfumato" technique.

London version
A very similar painting in the National Gallery, London, is also ascribed to Leonardo da Vinci, and ascribed a date before 1508. Originally thought to have been partially painted by Leonardo's assistants, study of the painting during the recent restoration have led the conservators to conclude that the greater part of the work is by the hand of Leonardo. It was painted for the chapel of the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, in the church of San Francesco Maggiore in Milan. It was sold by the church, very likely in 1781, and certainly by 1785, when it was bought by Gavin Hamilton, who took it to England. After passing through various collections, it was bought by the National Gallery in 1880.

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Famous Artworks

Head of a Young Woman - by Leonardo Da Vinci

In the Leonardo da Vinci's sketches, many parts are lost in obscurity, or are left intentionally uncertain and mysterious, even in the light, and you might at first imagine some permission of escape had been here given you from the terrible law of delineation. But the slightest attempts to copy them will show you that the terminal lines are inimitably subtle, un-accusably true, and filled by gradations of shade so determined and measured that the addition of a grain of lead or chalk as large as the filament of a moth's wing would make an appreciable difference in them.
There may not be in the world another example of a genius so universal, so inventive, so incapable of fulfillment, so full of yearning for the infinite, so naturally refined, so far ahead of his own century and the following centuries. Leonardo da Vinci's figures reveal an incredible sensitivity and intellect; they are full of unexpressed ideas and feelings. Next to them, Michelangelo's characters are mere heroic athletes, Raphael's virgins only placid girls whose un-awakened souls have never know life. Leonardo's portraits feel and think through every feature and every expression; it takes some time to establish a dialogue with them; not that their feeling is not clear enough, on the contrary it bursts out of the whole figure, but it is too subtle, too complicated, too much outside and beyond ordinary experience, too unfathomable, too unexplainable. Their immobility and their silence allow us to guess two or three layers of thought and other deeper thoughts, hiding behind the most remote layer; we vaguely discern this intimate, secret world, like a delicate, unknown vegetation below the depths of a transparent water.

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Famous Artworks

The Vitruvian Man - by Da Vinci

The Vitruvian Man was created by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1487. It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the famed architect, Vitruvius Pollio. The drawing, which is in pen and ink on paper, depicts a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man. It is stored in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, Italy, and, like most works on paper, is displayed only occasionally.
The proportinal relationship of the parts reflects universal design. And a "medical" equilibrium of elements ensures a stable structure. These qualities are thus shared equally by God's creation of the human body and the human being's own production of a good building. In the late 1480s, this theme of the artistic microcosm emerged as one of the freat unifying principles of his thought. This architectural applicaiton is not the end of the matter, however; it only represents the beginning of a concepts which had a literally universal application.

This image provides the perfect example of Leonardo's keen interest in proportion. In addition, this picture represents a cornerstone of Leonardo's attempts to relate man to nature. Encyclopaedia Britannica online states, "Leonardo envisaged the great picture chart of the human body he had produced through his anatomical drawings and Vitruvian Man as a cosmografia del minor mondo (cosmography of the microcosm). He believed the workings of the human body to be an analogy for the workings of the universe."

Leonardo da Vinci's drawing of Vitruvian Man is one of the most popular world icons. There have been countless attempts over the years to understand the composition of Leonardo's illustration of Vitruvius' principles.

Morden Representations of The Vitruvian Man

Morden Representations of The Vitruvian Man
The one euro coin has a picture of the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci on the back.


The Vitruvian Man on Skylab 3
Skylab 3 was the second manned mission to Skylab. The Skylab 3 mission started July 28, 1973, with the launch of three astronauts on the Saturn IB rocket, and lasted 59 days, 11 hours and 9 minutes.

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Famous Artworks

The Virgin and Child with St Anne by Da Vinci

The Virgin and Child with St Anne   was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci on 1510. It is Oil on wood and measures 168 x 130 cm (5 1/2 x 4 1/2 ft.). The original one is now located at Musée du Louvre, Paris.
This painting depicted St. Anne, her daughter the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. Christ is shown grappling with a sacrificial lamb symbolising his Passion whilst the Virgin tries to restrain him. The painting was commissioned as the high altarpiece for the Church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence and its theme had long preoccupied Leonardo.

Leonardo first explored the topic of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne around about 1498. His original sketch is now lost to us, but in the one illustrated below, commonly termed the Burlington House Cartoon, the infant Christ is shown blessing a young St. John during a meeting in the desert. This is only one of many sketches on the theme that was never translated into a painting; Leonardo was to entirely abandon these earlier ideas. Cartoons are preparatory large-scale drawings intended to be transferred to a wall or canvas during the final painting; this one was named after the British collection which once owned it. Many scholars prefer the Burlington House Cartoon to Leonardo's completed oil painting, pointing out how the face of the Madonna is much more natural and less wooden looking.

Here, he has arranged the figures as a pyramid set in a landscape. While the theme of the Virgin Mary, her mother (Anne), and Jesus was common, it is unusual for Mary to be portrayed in her mother's lap. The background landscape, whose crags are seemingly replicated in Anne's veil, virtually melts in its sfumato haze. The baby lamb is both a symbol of innocence and of Jesus' sacrifice for humanity, memorialized in John the Baptist's reference to Jesus as the "Lamb of God".

Details of The Virgin and Child with St Anne:Mary's gaze



Mary's gaze is melancholy. She has recognized that her son must suffer his future fate. Her body still seems to be showing the tension of the previous moment when she wanted to pull her child away from the lamb, the symbol of his future suffering. St Anne is watching the events benevolently. The pyramidal composition is dynamic, yet harmoniously balanced. The colossal sense of depth created by the mountainous landscape gives the painting a perceptible peacefulness and greatness.

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Famous Artworks

Lady with an Ermine - by Da Vinci

Lady with an Ermine is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, from around 1489–1490. That stunning picture is 40.3 cm wide and 54.8 cm high, oil on walnut board. Unfortunately, the original background has been overlaid probably in the 17th c. The subject of the portrait is identified as Cecilia Gallerani, and was probably painted at a time when she was the mistress of Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan and Leonardo was in the service of the Duke.


 Lady with The Ermine has been heavily over painted. The entire background was darkened, her dress below the ermine was retouched and a transparent veil being worn by the woman was repainted to match the colour of her hair. The result of this last retouching has been to give the appearance that her hair reaches down and underneath her chin. Yet another change was the addition of dark shadows between the fingers of her right hand, a close look at the bottom two fingers shows they are quite inferior to the others after an unknown restorer repainted them. An x-ray of this painting revealed the presence of a door in the original background.
Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine is one of the most important woks in all of Western art. Only a handful of authentic panel painting of him survive. Enormously curious, Leonardo often painted with experimental materials or abandoned projects once he had mastered the formal challenge each presented. An object of the greatest rarit, the Lady with an Ermine is a captivating image of exquisite elegance and reveals the artistic genius of Leonardo da Vinci's incomparable creative mind.

sighting turret on top to coordinate the firing of the canons and the steering of the vehicle.

Story of This Famous Painting

The Lady With An Ermine' came into Polish hands in 1800, after it was bought by the young Prince Adam Czartoryski (later a hero in the fight for Polish independence) during his tour of Italy. The painting was for his mother, a keen collector and the foundress of the Czartoryski Museum.

Princess Izabela may have been a great patriot but her handling of the Leonardo painting would have given modern art historians a heart attack. 'If it's a dog, it's a very ugly one' she remarked on receiving the portrait from the gallant Prince Adam. Taking a disliking to Leonardo's blue background, the Princess promptly had it painted jet black, and then painted on an erroneous title 'La Belle Ferronniere'' (a portrait that now hangs in the Louvre).

Standing before the painting today, you can't help feeling slightly cheated by the black background. It has the effect of rendering the Lady (allegedly a mistress of Duke Ludovico Sforza) as a kind of cardboard cut-out. You feel that she might fall out of the picture at any moment, like a character in a childrens pop-up book (a quality which Monty Python's artist Terry Gilliam had plenty of fun with in his Flying Circus adventures).

As we head further into snooty art critic territory, we should mention on the plus side that the portrait has a striking serenity about it. And the ermine itself is beautifully rendered (few modern artists could have done such a fine job). Likewise, Leonardo's handling of light and shade is as subtle as ever. However, as you'd expect from a painting that's 500 years old, all the tricks that wowed the original audience have long since been bettered by eighteenth and nineteenth century artists.

It's a bit like watching Citizen Kane, the favourite of directors such as Scorcese and Spielberg. If you are pointed out what was a novelty at the time that the work was created, then you'll want to take your hat off to the director. However, like Leonardo, Orson's thunder was stolen long ago.

In this respect you could argue that the portraits of Piotr Michalowski or Stanislaw Wyspianski (both can be found in Cracow collections) are much more engaging than the "Lady with an Ermine".

Much of this is just stating the obvious. And all said, "The Lady With An Ermine" is a fantastic painting - even though it may not astound today. It was exceptional for its time. All the same, we shouldn't feel too ashamed about not being awe-struck by the portrait today.

What is perhaps more astounding is the painting's survival. Forced into exile on many occasions, walled up in hidden cellars in country palaces and then stolen by Cracow's wartime Nazi governor, The Lady has not had an easy ride (The Czartoryski's Raphael is still missing to this day, and an empty frame hangs on the wall opposite the Leonardo).

When the "Lady With An Ermine" was initially retrieved after the Nazi invasion of 1939, an SS soldier's footprint was found on the portrait. It was a fitting metaphor for the attempts that had been made over the centuries to trample Polish cultural institutions, of which the Czartoryski Museum is one of the most radiant. It's well worth dropping by the museum if you're in Cracow - there are plenty of treasures to savour. And of course, no one will begrudge you from saying a warm hello to the Lady. Indeed, it would be unchivalrous not to!

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Portrait of Ginevra de' Benci - by Da Vinci

Portrait of Ginevra de' Benci  was painted by Leonardo da Vinci around 1474-1476. It is oil on wood and measures 42 x 37 cm (16 1/2 x 14 1/2 in.) It is now owned by National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC and is currently the only painting by Leonardo in the Americas.
Ginevra de' Benci (1457-c. 1520) was a lady of the aristocratic class in 15th century Florence, admired for her intelligence by Florentine contemporaries. She is the subject of one of only about 17 existing paintings attributed to Leonardo da Vinci.

Unlike Leonardo's other portraits of women, this lady looks sulky, unforgiving and haughty; this is emphasised by the slightly smaller cast of one eye, making her look withdrawn. Her left eye seems to gaze directly at us while the right looks beyond to some invisible point. Like other Florentine women of the period Ginevra has shaved off her eyebrows (this is also obvious in the Mona Lisa). Maybe her expression indicates she was not entirely happy regarding her forthcoming marriage. In later life she was to go into self-inflicted exile in an attempt to recover from a severe illness; she was also tormented by an ill-fated love affair.

The marble appearance of her complexion -- smoothed with Leonardo's own hand -- is framed by the undulating ringlets of her hair. This then contrasts beautifully with the halo of spikes from the juniper bush. Leonardo veiled the background of this portrait in a thin veil of mist known as sfumato (literal translation: "turned to vapour"); this being created with overlaid oil glazes. Though Leonardo did not create this effect he become well-known for his skillful use of it.

At some point this canvas has had as much as on one-third cut from the bottom (estimates put the amount removed at around nine centimetres). This area would have been large enough to show her hands, folded or crossed, and resting in her lap. Their loss is a great shame as no one painted hands as beautifully as Leonardo.

Details of the Portrait

The Reverse Side of the Portrait


Leonardo da Vinci painted this portrait of Ginevra de' Benci, a young Florentine noblewoman who, at the age of sixteen, married Luigi Niccolini in 1474. The work may have been an engagement or wedding portrait, or it may have been commissioned by Bernardo Bembo, the Venetian Ambassador to Florence and Ginevra's close friend and admirer. On the reverse side of the painting, a wreath of laurel and palm encircles a sprig of juniper and a scroll bears the Latin inscription, "Beauty Adorns Virtue."


Finger Prints On this Portrait 


Fingerprints visible on the paint surface show how the artist used his hand as well as a brush to blend colors and create soft, delicate edges.

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St. John the Baptist - by Leonardo Da Vinci

St. John the Baptist was painted by Leonardo da Vinci during 1513 to 1516, when the High Renaissance was metamorphosing into Mannerism, it is believed to be his last painting. This is an oil painting on walnut wood. The original size of the work was 69x57 cm. It is now exhibited at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France.
The pointing gesture of St. John toward the heavens suggests the importance of salvation through baptism that John the Baptist represents. The work is often quoted by later painters, especially those in the late Renaissance and Mannerist schools. The inclusion of a gesture similar to John's would increase the importance of a work with a religious conceit.


 
Many people are critical of this work, finding it a disturbing representation of a character normally portrayed as gaunt and fiery, living in a desert and surviving on a diet of locusts and honey. In Leonardo's painting St. John seems almost to be a hermaphrodite. He has a womanish arm bent across his breast, his finger raised towards heaven, and that same enigmatic smile so admired on the face of Mona Lisa, a smile which can be seen in other Leonardo paintings like that of St. Anne. His face is almost faun-like and framed by a glorious cascade of curls. The finger pointed towards heaven was to appear quite often in Leonardo's work (the Burlington House cartoon is another example) and denotes the coming of Christ.

Leonardo was aware of the inherent dangers of this system. Earlier in his notes he warned that a figure will not be discerned against a dark background and will not appear to be detached from it. From a distance nothing will be visible but the illuminated parts. However, in the shadows of the body of St John the Baptist, Leonardo has retained just enough light for us to be able to comprehend his form fully. As in the moon, even the dark areas of his figure retain a “slight glimmer” of reflected radiance.

This is the last known major work in Leonardo's hand. The figure's haunting beauty comes from the ambiguity of its sexual identity. The luminous face seems to be an emanation of the darkness that completely envelops it. The mysterious gesture of the raised arm with upward-pointing finger is not just of religious but probably also of esoteric significance.

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The Battle of Anghiari - by Leonardo Da Vinci

The Battle of Anghiari is a lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci at times referred to as, "The Lost Leonardo", which some commentators believe to be still hidden beneath later frescoes in the Hall of Five Hundred (Salone dei Cinquecento) in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Its central scene depicted three men riding raging war-horses engaged in a battle for possession of a standard.
This is the finest known copy of Leonardo’s lost Battle of Anghiari fresco. It was made in the mid-16th century and then extended at the edges in the early 17th century by Rubens, who also completed the sword of the fourth horseman.

Sometime around October 1503, Leonardo was commissioned to paint the mural of The Battle of Anghiari, for the Sala del Gran Consiglio, the recently rebuilt Great Council Hall of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, during the first years of the city’s republican government.

An ambitious painting, Leonardo used a type of plaster which he read about in a book by Pliny, with the unfortunate result that the work he had barely begun was irreparably ruined. Problems started as soon as Leonardo placed his brush to the wall at 9 am. The weather turned bad, the sky opened and it rained then on until nightfall. The sudden humidity liquefied the paste holding the cartoon in position; as Leonardo lifted his hand to start work the cartoon slid to the floor and tore.

An encaustic (translation: 'fixing by heat') technique was that chosen for the artwork. Leonardo took the precaution of doing a trial run of this technique; it was applied to a board and dried well in a warm environment. Firstly a layer of granular plaster was applied, this being primed to a hard flat finish; over this was added a layer of resinous pitch which was applied with sponges. The combination should have supplied a suitable base for the application of oils. During the painting process an ingenious scaffolding was used to raise Leonardo to the needed height for finishing the upper portion of the centre section of this work, but though the scaffolding was a brilliant design, the painting methods chosen were absolutely disastrous.

Due to his use of experimental techniques, Leonardo's completed centre section had vanished almost entirely within only fourteen years. Vasari then painted a chaotic battle scene over the area. Ultrasonic tests were carried out in 1976; they searched for traces of Leonardo's painting and none were found.

Many, many copies of the Battle of Anghiari have been painted. Each is different, none fully captures the power of original work by Leonardo. Below is a study done by Da Vinci for the painting.


 

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Famous Artworks

Leonardo da Vinci Self Portrait

This self portait was painted in 1512 using red chalk, when Leonardo da Vinci was 50 and living in France. The original painting measures 33.3 x 21.3 cm (13 1/8 x 8 3/8 in). It is now held in the magnificent collection of the Biblioteca Reale, Turin.
Leonardo da Vinci's thinking about the power of the artist can also furnish the clue to the famous enigmatic self-portrait in red chalk. It has often been remarked that on it the master looks older than his age - he can have been only about sixty when he made this drawing - and in consequence some critics have doubted whether it is a likeness of himself. Other good reasons apart, however, this portrait perfectly fits the role in which Leonardo had cast himself. A venerable old man with a long white beard, the severe eyes shaded under bushy brows, was the traditional type for representing philosophers, prophets and also God. Nobody would suggest seriously, of course, that Leonardo has drawn himself consciously in the semblance of the Almighty, but we must remember his claim that the painter contends with nature and that painting is related to God. This imposing sage who seems to have come from some other world has something of the indefinable mien of a magus, of a one who through discovering the laws of the universe knows how to manipulate them.

Legend of this Painting - Is Mona Lisa a Self Portrait?



Some have used digital analysis to superimpose Leonardo's bearded self-portrait over the Mona Lisa to show how the facial features perfectly aligned.

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Famous Artworks

The Burlington House Cartoon - by Leonardo Da Vinci

The Burlington House Cartoon, sometimes called The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist  is a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci. The drawing is in charcoal and black and white chalk, on eight sheets of paper glued together. Because of its large size and format the drawing is presumed to be a cartoon for a painting. No painting by Leonardo exists that is based directly on this cartoon.

The drawing depicts the Virgin Mary seated on the knees of her mother St Anne and holding the Child Jesus while St. John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, stands to the right. It currently hangs in the National Gallery in London. It was either executed in around 1499–1500, when the artist was in Milan, or around 1506–8, when he was shuttling between Florence and Milan; the majority of scholars prefer the latter date, although the National Gallery and others prefer the former.

 
The subject of the cartoon is a combination of two themes popular in Florentine painting of the 15th century: The Virgin and Child with John the Baptist and The Virgin and Child with St Anne.

The drawing is notable for its complex composition, demonstrating the alternation in the positioning of figures that is first apparent in Leonardo's paintings in the Benois Madonna. The knees of the two women point different directions, with Mary's knees turning out of the painting to the left, while her body turns sharply to the right, creating a sinuous movement. The knees and the feet of the figures establish a strong up-and-down rhythm at a point in the composition where a firm foundation comprising firmly planted feet, widely spread knees and broad spread of enclosing garment would normally be found. While the lower halves of their bodies turn away, the faces of the two women turn towards each other, mirroring each other's features. The delineation between the upper bodies has lost clarity, suggesting that the heads are part of the same body.

The twisting movement of the Virgin is echoed in the Christ Child, whose body, held almost horizontal by his mother, rotates axially, with the lower body turned upward and the upper body turned downward. This turning posture is first indicated in Leonardo's painting in the Adoration of the Magi and is explored in a number of drawings, in particular the various studies of the Virgin and Child with a cat that are in the British Museum.

The juxtaposition of two sets of heads is an important compositional element. The angle, lighting and gaze of the Christ Child reproduces that of his mother, while John the Baptist reproduces these same elements in the face of St Anne. The lighting indicates that there are two protagonists, and two supporting cast in the scene that the viewer is witnessing. There is a subtle interplay between the gazes of the four figures. St Anne smiles adoringly at her daughter Mary, perhaps indicating not only maternal pride but also the veneration due to the one who "all generations will call...blessed". Mary's eyes are fixed on the Christ Child who raises his hand in a gesture of benediction over the cousin who thirty years later would carry out his appointed task of baptising Jesus. Although the older of the two children, John the Baptist humbly accepts the blessing, as one who would later say of his cousin "I am not worthy even to unloose his sandals." St Anne's hand, her index finger pointing towards the Heaven, is positioned near the heads of the children, perhaps to indicate the original source of the blessing. This enigmatic gesture is regarded as quintessentially Leonardesque, occurring in the Last Supper and St John the Baptist.

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Famous Artworks

Study of Horse - by Leonardo Da Vinci

In 1482, Leonardo da Vinci wrote an ambitious proposal to Lodovico Sforza, the powerful Duke of Milan. In addition to offering his skills as civil engineer, architect, bridge-builder and designer of futuristic military weaponry to empower and protect Milan's soldiers against the threat of French conquest, da Vinci proposed the casting of an enormous bronze statue of a horse -- the *Il Cavallo* -- to stand guard over the Duke's castle and honor his father, Francesco Sforza. Lodovico, one of the most powerful leaders of Renaissance Italy, who spent astonishing amounts of money to advance the arts and sciences, employed da Vinci and became his most influential patron.
While da Vinci maintained his studio, oversaw the work of his apprentices, and worked on painting The Last Supper, the 24-foot-tall clay version of the great horse took shape in a vineyard near the Duke's castle. Seventy tons of bronze were set aside for the casting, but when war with Charles VIII of France appeared imminent, this resource was diverted for weapons, and The Horse maintained his vigil in clay.

In 1499 Milan fell without a fight, and victorious French archers used the clay horse for target practice -- reducing it to a pile of rubble. Da Vinci was heartbroken.