Editing Leonardo da Vinci (section)

== Paintings ==
{{See also|List of works by Leonardo da Vinci}}
Despite the recent awareness and admiration of Leonardo as a scientist and inventor, for the better part of four hundred years his fame rested on his achievements as a painter. A handful of works that are either authenticated or attributed to him have been regarded as among the great masterpieces. These paintings are famous for a variety of qualities that have been much imitated by students and discussed at great length by connoisseurs and critics. By the 1490s Leonardo had already been described as a "Divine" painter.{{sfn|Arasse|1998|pp=11–15}}

Among the qualities that make Leonardo's work unique are his innovative techniques for laying on the paint; his detailed knowledge of anatomy, light, botany and geology; his interest in [[physiognomy]] and the way humans register emotion in expression and gesture; his innovative use of the human form in figurative composition; and his use of subtle gradation of tone. All these qualities come together in his most famous painted works, the ''Mona Lisa'', the ''Last Supper'', and the ''Virgin of the Rocks''.{{efn|These qualities of Leonardo's works are discussed in {{harvtxt|Hartt|1970|pp=387–411}}.}}

=== Early works ===
[[File:Annunciation (Leonardo c. 1472–1476).jpg|thumb|''[[Annunciation (Leonardo)|Annunciation]]'' {{circa|1472–1476}},{{#tag:ref|'''''The Annunciation'''''
* {{Harvtxt|Kemp|2019|p=6}}: {{circa|1473–1474}}
* {{Harvtxt|Marani|2003|p=338}}: {{circa|1472–1475}}
* {{Harvtxt|Syson ''et al.''|2011|p=15}}: {{circa|1472–1476}}
* {{Harvtxt|Zöllner|2019|p=216}}: {{circa|1473–1475}}
|group=d}} [[Uffizi]], is thought to be Leonardo's earliest extant and complete major work.]]
Leonardo first gained attention for his work on the ''[[The Baptism of Christ (Verrocchio)|Baptism of Christ]]'', painted in conjunction with Verrocchio. Two other paintings appear to date from his time at Verrocchio's workshop, both of which are [[Annunciation]]s. One is small, {{nowrap|{{convert|59|cm}}}} long and {{convert|14|cm|abbr=on}} high. It is a "[[predella]]" to go at the base of a larger composition, a painting by Lorenzo di Credi from which it has become separated. The other is a much larger work, {{convert|217|cm|abbr=on}} long.{{sfn|Ottino della Chiesa|1967|pp=88, 90}} In both Annunciations, Leonardo used a formal arrangement, like two well-known pictures by [[Fra Angelico]] of the same subject, of the [[Virgin Mary]] sitting or kneeling to the right of the picture, approached from the left by an angel in profile, with a rich flowing garment, raised wings and bearing a lily. Although previously attributed to Ghirlandaio, the larger work is now generally attributed to Leonardo.{{sfn|Marani|2003|p=338}}

In the smaller painting, Mary averts her eyes and folds her hands in a gesture that symbolised submission to God's will. Mary is not submissive, however, in the larger piece. The girl, interrupted in her reading by this unexpected messenger, puts a finger in her bible to mark the place and raises her hand in a formal gesture of greeting or surprise.{{sfn|Hartt|1970|pp=127–133}} This calm young woman appears to accept her role as the [[Mother of God]], not with resignation but with confidence. In this painting, the young Leonardo presents the humanist face of the Virgin Mary, recognising humanity's role in God's incarnation.

=== Paintings of the 1480s ===
[[File:Saint Jerome Leonardo - image only (Q972196).jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|''[[Saint Jerome in the Wilderness (Leonardo)|Saint Jerome in the Wilderness]]'' (unfinished) {{circa|1480–1490}},{{#tag:ref|'''''Saint Jerome in the Wilderness'''''
* {{Harvtxt|Kemp|2019|p=31}}: {{circa|1481–1482}}
* {{Harvtxt|Marani|2003|p=338}}: probably {{circa|1480}}
* {{Harvtxt|Syson ''et al.''|2011|p=139}}: {{circa|1488–1490}}
* {{Harvtxt|Zöllner|2019|p=221}}: {{circa|1480–1482}}
|group=d}} [[Apostolic Palace|Vatican]]]]

In the 1480s, Leonardo received two very important commissions and commenced another work that was of ground-breaking importance in terms of composition. Two of the three were never finished, and the third took so long that it was subject to lengthy negotiations over completion and payment.

One of these paintings was ''[[Saint Jerome in the Wilderness (Leonardo)|Saint Jerome in the Wilderness]]'', which Bortolon associates with a difficult period of Leonardo's life, as evidenced in his diary: "I thought I was learning to live; I was only learning to die."{{sfn|Bortolon|1967}} Although the painting is barely begun, the composition can be seen and is very unusual.{{efn|The painting, which in the 18th century belonged to [[Angelica Kauffman]], was later cut up. The two main sections were found in a junk shop and cobbler's shop and were reunited.{{sfn|Wasserman|1975|pp=104–106}} It is probable that outer parts of the composition are missing.}} [[Jerome]], as a [[penitent]], occupies the middle of the picture, set on a slight diagonal and viewed somewhat from above. His kneeling form takes on a trapezoid shape, with one arm stretched to the outer edge of the painting and his gaze looking in the opposite direction. J. Wasserman points out the link between this painting and Leonardo's anatomical studies.{{sfn|Wasserman|1975|pp=104–106}} Across the foreground sprawls his symbol, a great lion whose body and tail make a double spiral across the base of the picture space. The other remarkable feature is the sketchy landscape of craggy rocks against which the figure is silhouetted.

The daring display of figure composition, the landscape elements and personal drama also appear in the great unfinished masterpiece, the ''[[Adoration of the Magi (Leonardo)|Adoration of the Magi]]'', a commission from the Monks of San Donato a Scopeto. It is a complex composition, of about {{nowrap|250 x 250 centimetres.}} Leonardo did numerous drawings and preparatory studies, including a detailed one in linear perspective of the ruined [[classical architecture]] that forms part of the background. In 1482 Leonardo went to Milan at the behest of Lorenzo de' Medici in order to win favour with Ludovico il Moro, and the painting was abandoned.{{sfn|Ottino della Chiesa|1967|p=83}}

<!--[[File:Leonardo da Vinci Virgin of the Rocks (National Gallery London).jpg|thumb|''[[Virgin of the Rocks]]'', [[National Gallery]], London, demonstrates Leonardo's interest in nature]]-->
[[File:Lady with an Ermine - Leonardo da Vinci (adjusted levels).jpg|thumb|upright|left|''[[Lady with an Ermine]]'', {{circa|1489–1491}},{{#tag:ref|'''''Lady with an Ermine'''''
* {{Harvtxt|Kemp|2019|p=49}}: {{circa|1491}}
* {{Harvtxt|Marani|2003|p=339}}: 1489–1490
* {{Harvtxt|Syson ''et al.''|2011|p=111}}: {{circa|1489–1490}}
* {{Harvtxt|Zöllner|2019|p=226}}: 1489/1490
|group=d}} [[Czartoryski Museum]], [[Kraków]], Poland]]

The third important work of this period is the ''[[Virgin of the Rocks]]'', commissioned in Milan for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. The painting, to be done with the assistance of the [[Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis|de Predis brothers]], was to fill a large complex [[altarpiece]].{{sfn|Wasserman|1975|p=108}} Leonardo chose to paint an apocryphal moment of the infancy of Christ when the infant [[John the Baptist]], in protection of an angel, met the Holy Family on the road to Egypt. The painting demonstrates an eerie beauty as the graceful figures kneel in adoration around the infant Christ in a wild landscape of tumbling rock and whirling water.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Mysterious Virgin |publisher=[[National Gallery, London]] |url=http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/collection/features/potm/2006/may/feature1.htm | access-date =27 September 2007 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20071015062743/http://nationalgallery.org.uk/collection/features/potm/2006/may/feature1.htm | archive-date =15 October 2007 }}</ref> While the painting is quite large, about {{nowrap|200 × 120 centimetres,}} it is not nearly as complex as the painting ordered by the monks of San Donato, having only four figures rather than about fifty and a rocky landscape rather than architectural details. The painting was eventually finished; in fact, two versions of the painting were finished: one remained at the chapel of the Confraternity, while Leonardo took the other to France. The Brothers did not get their painting, however, nor the de Predis their payment, until the next century.{{sfn|Arasse|1998}}{{sfn|Ottino della Chiesa|1967|p=85}}

Leonardo's most remarkable portrait of this period is the ''[[Lady with an Ermine]]'', presumed to be [[Cecilia Gallerani]] ({{circa|1483–1490}}), lover of Ludovico Sforza.<ref name=treasures>{{cite web |url=http://culture.pl/en/event/da-vincis-lady-with-an-ermine-among-polands-treasures |title=Da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine among Poland's "Treasures" – Event – Culture.pl|access-date=18 November 2017|archive-date=1 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201042043/http://culture.pl/en/event/da-vincis-lady-with-an-ermine-among-polands-treasures|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Lady with an Ermine in the exhibition Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration |last=Kemp |first=M. |location=Washington-New Haven-London |pages=271}}</ref> The painting is characterised by the pose of the figure with the head turned at a very different angle to the torso, unusual at a date when many portraits were still rigidly in profile. The ermine plainly carries symbolic meaning, relating either to the sitter, or to Ludovico who belonged to the prestigious [[Order of the Ermine (France)|Order of the Ermine]].<ref name=treasures />
{{Clear}}

=== Paintings of the 1490s ===
[[File:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|''[[The Last Supper (Leonardo)|The Last Supper]]'',{{#tag:ref|'''''The Last Supper'''''
* {{Harvtxt|Kemp|2019|p=67}}: {{circa|1495–1497}}
* {{Harvtxt|Marani|2003|p=339}}: between 1494 and 1498
* {{Harvtxt|Syson ''et al.''|2011|p=252}}: 1492–1497/1498
* {{Harvtxt|Zöllner|2019|p=230}}: {{circa|1495–1498}}
|group=d}} [[Santa Maria delle Grazie (Milan)|Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie]], Milan ({{circa|1492–1498}})]]
Leonardo's most famous painting of the 1490s is ''[[The Last Supper (Leonardo)|The Last Supper]]'', commissioned for the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan. It represents the [[Last Supper|last meal]] shared by Jesus with his disciples before his capture and death, and shows the moment when Jesus has just said "one of you will betray me", and the consternation that this statement caused.{{sfn|Arasse|1998}}

The writer [[Matteo Bandello]] observed Leonardo at work and wrote that some days he would paint from dawn till dusk without stopping to eat and then not paint for three or four days at a time.{{sfn|Wasserman|1975|p=124}} This was beyond the comprehension of the [[Prior (ecclesiastical)|prior]] of the convent, who hounded him until Leonardo asked Ludovico to intervene. Vasari describes how Leonardo, troubled over his ability to adequately depict the faces of Christ and the traitor [[Judas Iscariot|Judas]], told the duke that he might be obliged to use the prior as his model.<ref group="‡" name=":0">{{harvnb|Vasari|1991|p=290}}</ref>

The painting was acclaimed as a masterpiece of design and characterisation,<ref group="‡">{{harvnb|Vasari|1991|pp=289–291}}</ref> but it deteriorated rapidly, so that within a hundred years it was described by one viewer as "completely ruined."{{sfn|Ottino della Chiesa|1967|p=97}} Leonardo, instead of using the reliable technique of fresco, had used tempera over a [[Ground (art)|ground]] that was mainly [[gesso]], resulting in a surface subject to mould and to flaking.{{sfn|Ottino della Chiesa|1967|p=98}} Despite this, the painting remains one of the most reproduced works of art; countless copies have been made in various mediums.

Toward the end of this period, in 1498 Leonardo's trompe-l'œil decoration of the [[Sala delle Asse]] was painted for the Duke of Milan in the [[Castello Sforzesco]].

=== Paintings of the 1500s ===
In 1505, Leonardo was commissioned to paint ''The Battle of Anghiari'' in the [[Salone dei Cinquecento]] ("Hall of the Five Hundred") in the [[Palazzo Vecchio]], Florence. Leonardo devised a dynamic composition depicting four men riding raging war horses engaged in a battle for possession of a standard, at the [[Battle of Anghiari]] in 1440. Michelangelo was assigned the opposite wall to depict the [[Battle of Cascina]]. Leonardo's painting deteriorated rapidly and is now known from a copy by [[Rubens]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Seracini |first1=Maurizio |title=The Secret Lives of Paintings |url=https://www.ted.com/talks/maurizio_seracini_the_secret_lives_of_paintings?language=en#t-48953 |format=lecture |date=2012|access-date=14 March 2016|archive-date=18 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018193215/https://www.ted.com/talks/maurizio_seracini_the_secret_lives_of_paintings?language=en#t-48953|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci, from C2RMF retouched.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Mona Lisa]]'' or ''La Gioconda'' {{circa|1503–1516}},{{#tag:ref|'''''Mona Lisa'''''
* {{Harvtxt|Kemp|2019|p=127}}: {{circa|1503–1515}}
* {{Harvtxt|Marani|2003|p=340}}: {{circa|1503–1504; 1513–1514}}
* {{Harvtxt|Syson ''et al.''|2011|p=48}}: {{circa|1502 onward}}
* {{Harvtxt|Zöllner|2019|p=240}}: {{circa|1503–1506; 1510}}
|group=d}} [[Louvre]], Paris]]
Among the works created by Leonardo in the 16th century is the small portrait known as the ''[[Mona Lisa]]'' or ''La Gioconda'', the laughing one. In the present era, it is arguably the most famous painting in the world. Its fame rests, in particular, on the elusive smile on the woman's face, its mysterious quality perhaps due to the subtly shadowed corners of the mouth and eyes such that the exact nature of the smile cannot be determined. The shadowy quality for which the work is renowned came to be called ''[[sfumato]],'' or "Leonardo's smoke". Vasari wrote that the smile was "so pleasing that it seems more divine than human, and it was considered a wondrous thing that it was as lively as the smile of the living original."<ref group="‡">{{harvnb|Vasari|1991|p=294}}</ref>

Other characteristics of the painting are the unadorned dress, in which the eyes and hands have no competition from other details; the dramatic landscape background, in which the world seems to be in a state of flux; the subdued colouring; and the extremely smooth nature of the painterly technique, employing [[oil paint|oils]] laid on much like [[tempera]], and blended on the surface so that the brushstrokes are indistinguishable.{{sfn|Wasserman|1975|p=144}} Vasari expressed that the painting's quality would make even "the most confident master ... despair and lose heart."<ref group="‡">{{harvnb|Vasari|1965|p=266}}</ref> The perfect state of preservation and the fact that there is no sign of repair or overpainting is rare in a panel painting of this date.{{sfn|Ottino della Chiesa|1967|p=103}}

In the painting ''[[The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (Leonardo)|Virgin and Child with Saint Anne]]'', the composition again picks up the theme of figures in a landscape, which Wasserman describes as "breathtakingly beautiful"{{sfn|Wasserman|1975|p=150}} and harkens back to the ''Saint Jerome'' with the figure set at an oblique angle. What makes this painting unusual is that there are two obliquely set figures superimposed. Mary is seated on the knee of her mother, Saint Anne. She leans forward to restrain the Christ Child as he plays roughly with a lamb, the sign of his own impending sacrifice.{{sfn|Arasse|1998}} This painting, which was copied many times, influenced Michelangelo, Raphael, and [[Andrea del Sarto]],{{sfn|Ottino della Chiesa|1967|p=109}} and through them [[Pontormo]] and [[Correggio]]. The trends in composition were adopted in particular by the Venetian painters [[Tintoretto]] and [[Paolo Veronese|Veronese]].