Editing Leonardo da Vinci (section)

=== 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 />
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