Editing Leonardo da Vinci (section)

=== 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]].