Leonardo first gained attention for his work on the "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 Annunciations. One is small, long and 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, long. 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.
Early works
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci | Early works
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context. Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context. Mid-1460s Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
what does patterns in nature refer to?
user
They are visible regularities of form found in the natural world.
assistant
what patterns does it include?
user
It includes symmetries, trees, spirals, meanders, waves, foams, tessellations, cracks and stripes.
assistant
what is it caused by?
user
Causes can be in the mathematics that governs what patterns can physically form, and among living things in the effects of natural selection, that govern how patterns evolve.
assistant
were these indicated in any books?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
can you name anyone from history who has done such researches on this?
user
Leonardo da Vinci
assistant
where was he born?
user
In the Tuscan hill town of Vinci
assistant
was he into painting?
user
Yes his main achievement is as a painter
assistant
can you name some of his works?
user
"Baptism of Christ"
assistant
when was it painted?
user
Leonardo first gained attention for his work on the "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 Annunciations. One is small, long and 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, long. 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.
Leonardo da Vinci | Early works
Leonardo was accepted for apprenticeship and "soon proved himself a first class geometrician". Vasari says that during his youth Leonardo made a number of clay heads of smiling women and children from which casts were still being made and sold by the workshop some 80 years later. Among his earliest significant known paintings are the "Annunciation" in the Uffizi, the angel that he painted as a collaboration with Verrocchio in "The Baptism of Christ", and a small predella of the "Annunciation" to go beneath an altarpiece by Lorenzo di Credi. The little predella picture is probably the earliest. The diversity of Leonardo's interests, remarked on by Vasari as apparent in his early childhood, was to express itself in his journals which record his scientific observations of nature, his meticulous dissection of corpses to understand anatomy, his experiments with machines for flying, for generating power from water and for besieging cities, his studies of geometry and his architectural plans, as well as personal memos and creative writing including fables.
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Interests
Although previously attributed to Ghirlandaio, the larger work is now generally attributed to Leonardo. 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. 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.
Leonardo da Vinci | Early works
The painting "The Baptism of Christ" was, according to Antonio Billi (1515), commissioned by the Church of S. Salvi, and was later transferred to the Vallombrosan Sisterhood in Santa Verdiana. In 1810 it entered the collection of the Accademia and passed to the Uffizi in 1959. In the 16th century the work was discussed in Giorgio Vasari's "Lives of the Painters" in the biographies of both Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinci.
The Baptism of Christ (Verrocchio and Leonardo) | Background and provenance
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. 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", a commission from the Monks of San Donato a Scopeto.
Leonardo da Vinci | Paintings of the 1480s
All these qualities come together in his most famous painted works, the "Mona Lisa", the "Last Supper", and the "Virgin of the Rocks".
Leonardo da Vinci | Painting
The Baptism of Christ is a painting finished around 1475 in the studio of the Italian Renaissance painter Andrea del Verrocchio and generally ascribed to him and his pupil Leonardo da Vinci. Some art historians discern the hands of other members of Verrocchio's workshop in the painting as well. The picture depicts the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist as recorded in the Biblical Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The angel to the left is recorded as having been painted by the youthful Leonardo, a fact which has excited so much special comment and mythology, that the importance and value of the picture as a whole and within the œuvre of Verrocchio is often overlooked.
The Baptism of Christ (Verrocchio and Leonardo) | Introduction
He was not to see this project fully realized, but gathered the "Codex Urbinas".
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Pupils
While this date has gained wide acceptance, the association with Louis XII has not. More recent historians have dated the work as early as the mid 1490s and, in the case of Carlo Pedretti and Kenneth Clark, as late as 1508–1510. Martin Kemp notes that the hydraulic engineering in the preparatory drawing in the British Museum dates the composition to around 1507–1508, when Leonardo was making similar studies in the Codex Atlanticus. In the 17th century the drawing belonged to the Counts Arconati of Milan. In 1721 it passed to the Casnedis, then to the Sagredo in Venice. In 1763 it was acquired by Robert Udny.
The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist | History
Anne is a full generation older than Mary. Freud also points out that, in the painting, the outline of a vulture can be seen. This is connected to the original fantasy involving the vulture in Leonardo da Vinci's crib.
Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood | Interpretation of "The Virgin and Child with St. Anne"
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", 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." Although the painting is barely begun, the composition can be seen and is very unusual. Jerome, as a penitent, occupies the middle of the picture, set on a slight diagonal and viewed somewhat from above.
Leonardo da Vinci | Paintings of the 1480s
It is commonly believed that upon Leonardo's death in 1519, Salaì inherited several paintings including the "Mona Lisa". Through his estate, many of those works, notably the "Mona Lisa", passed into the possession of Francis I of France. While Leonardo left all personal belongings, paintings, drawings and notes to Francesco Melzi in his will, it is unclear whether this included the "Mona Lisa".
Salaì | Early life
Leonardo da Vinci (; 14/15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. The "Mona Lisa" is the most famous of his works and the most famous portrait ever made. "The Last Supper" is the most reproduced religious painting of all time and his "Vitruvian Man" drawing is also regarded as a cultural icon. He is also known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on science and invention; these involve a variety of subjects including anatomy, cartography, painting, and palaeontology.
Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
Leonardo was a prolific draughtsman, keeping journals full of small sketches and detailed drawings recording all manner of things that took his attention. As well as the journals there exist many studies for paintings, some of which can be identified as preparatory to particular works such as "The Adoration of the Magi", "The Virgin of the Rocks" and "The Last Supper". His earliest dated drawing is a "Landscape of the Arno Valley", 1473, which shows the river, the mountains, Montelupo Castle and the farmlands beyond it in great detail. According to art historian Ludwig Heydenreich, this is "The first true landscape in art." Massimo Polidoro says that it was the first landscape "not to be the background of some religious scene or a portrait.
Leonardo da Vinci | Drawings
Nevertheless, these few works together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, comprise a contribution to later generations of artists rivalled only by that of his contemporary, Michelangelo.
List of works by Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
1506–1508 based on stylistic similarities to other works by Leonardo, namely "The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist" and the London "Virgin of the Rocks". In 2016, Bambach dated the painting to c. 1500–1505 since she believes Leonardo was commissioned by Agostino Vespucci at this time.
La Scapigliata | Attribution and date
https://archive.org/details/VinciOperaArtaserseLOperaDeNancy20121110
Leonardo Vinci | External links
Since that date much has been written about his presumed homosexuality and its role in his art, particularly in the androgyny and eroticism manifested in "Saint John the Baptist" and "Bacchus" and more explicitly in a number of erotic drawings.
Leonardo da Vinci | Personal life
In the style of Leonardo he also painted a "St. John", which is now in the Zecca at Milan. Among his early paintings there is, besides the altar-piece, a "Last Supper" in the Dominican monastery, and a "Madonna" in fresco in Santa Anastasia at Verona. He died of the plague at Mantua. Another brother of Francesco, Fra Cherubino Bonsignori, excelled in miniature painting.
Girolamo Bonsignori | Life
Vasari describes how Leonardo, troubled over his ability to adequately depict the faces of Christ and the traitor Judas, told the Duke that he might be obliged to use the prior as his model. When finished, the painting was acclaimed as a masterpiece of design and characterization, but it deteriorated rapidly, so that within a hundred years it was described by one viewer as "completely ruined." Leonardo, instead of using the reliable technique of fresco, had used tempera over a ground that was mainly gesso, resulting in a surface subject to mould and to flaking. Despite this, the painting remains one of the most reproduced works of art; countless copies have been made in various mediums.
Leonardo da Vinci | Paintings of the 1490s
Leonardo da Vinci chose only very handsome boys, as was Francesco, to be his pupils and cared for them considerably as if they were family. In addition to Francesco Melzi, some of his pupils were Cesare da Sesto, Boltraffio and Andrea Salaí. However, as they were chosen based on attractiveness rather than talent, they were not very skilled painters, and therefore it is easy to identify paintings they worked on based on their lower quality. Because of the general workshop practice where multiple artists work on one painting, it has become common practice to ascribe Leonardo's pupils to his less known (or lower quality) works.
Francesco Melzi | Selected works
Nor were his designs based on particularly good science.
Early flying machines | Leonardo da Vinci
For example, "The Virgin and Christ Child with Saints Bernardino, Anthony Abbot, Francis and Sabina" and "The Lamentation Over the Dead Christ" (1462–3), a "square panel painting" altarpiece commissioned by Pope Pius II (of the noble Sienese Piccolomini family) for his recently finished cathedral.
Giovanni di Paolo | Early life and works
In addition to operas, Vinci wrote a few cantatas, sonatas, a serenata, and two oratorios ("Oratorio di Maria dolorata" ca. 1723 and "Oratorio per la Santissima Vergine del Rosario" ca. 1730). His sonata in D major for flute and basso continuo is still played today. He composed two sonatas for the recorder in addition to a recorder concerto in a minor.
Leonardo Vinci | Other works
Medusa is either of two paintings described in Giorgio Vasari's "Life" of Leonardo da Vinci as being among Leonardo's earliest works. Neither painting survived.
Medusa (Leonardo) | Introduction
A pupil in Verrocchio's workshop, Leonardo was asked to paint an angel in his master's composition. According to Vasari, this was so impressive that Verrocchio quit painting. It is probable that Leonardo painted much of the background landscape as it is painted in oil, like the angel, while the rest of the painting is in tempera.
The Baptism of Christ (Verrocchio and Leonardo) | Leonardo's involvement
The manuscript, which now appears to be incomplete, is considered a particularly useful source for the study of the history of Italian art since it is the most comprehensive biographical source before the 1550 edition of Vasari's Lives, which was being compiled over the same period. The account of the life of Leonardo da Vinci is especially detailed, and much used by later authors. One particular point, a later addition to the manuscript, has been much discussed. This states that Leonardo painted a portrait from life of "Piero Francesco del Giocondo" (or possibly just "Francesco del Giocondo"), respectively the son and the husband of Lisa del Giocondo, usually considered the sitter for the "Mona Lisa".
Anonimo Gaddiano | Contents
In 1516 at aged 64 Leonardo da Vinci left Rome and traveled through Italy, armed with his sketchbooks and 3 of his most famous paintings: "Mona Lisa", "The Virgin and Child", "with St. Anne" and "St. John the Baptist". They are now conserved in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. His disciples Francesco Melzi and Salaì followed him throughout his travels, as did his servant, Batista of Vilanis. Benvenuto Cellini wrote that king Francis I gave Leonardo da Vinci a pension of 700 gold ecus, as well as buying his artwork allowing him to live and work in the Clos Lucé.
Clos Lucé | Leonardo da Vinci’s years at the Clos Lucé
It is a complex composition, of about 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.
Leonardo da Vinci | Paintings of the 1480s
Leonardo's most famous painting of the 1490s is "The Last Supper", commissioned for the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan. It represents the 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. 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. This was beyond the comprehension of the prior of the convent, who hounded him until Leonardo asked Ludovico to intervene.
Leonardo da Vinci | Paintings of the 1490s
The date and place of execution of the cartoon is disputed. The earliest reference to it is by the biographer Giorgio Vasari who, writing in the mid 16th century, says that the work was created while Leonardo was in Florence, as a guest of the Servite Monastery. Vasari says that for two days people young and old flocked to see the drawing as if they were attending a festival. This would date the cartoon to about 1500. A date of 1498–99 is put on the work by Padre Sebastiano Resta who wrote to Giovanni Pietro Bellori saying that Leonardo had drawn the cartoon in Milan at the request of Louis XII of France.
The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist | History
Modern critics also attribute much of the landscape in the background to Leonardo da Vinci as well. The painting is housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
The Baptism of Christ (Verrocchio and Leonardo) | Introduction
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was one of the leading artists of the High Renaissance. Fifteen artworks are generally attributed either in whole or in large part to him. However, it is believed that he made many more, only for them to be lost over the years or remain unidentified. The authorship of several paintings traditionally attributed to Leonardo is disputed. Two major works are known only as copies. Works are regularly attributed to Leonardo with varying degrees of credibility. None of Leonardo's paintings are signed. The attributions here draw on the opinions of various scholars. The small number of surviving paintings is due in part to Leonardo's frequently disastrous experimentation with new techniques and his chronic procrastination.
List of works by Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
On the 10 October 1517, he was visited by the Cardinal Luigi d’Aragona, who was so impressed by his artwork that he described them in his "Itinerario", as “rare perfection”. These include his three most famous pieces of work : The Mona Lisa, The Virgin and Child, with St. Anne and St John the Baptist.
Clos Lucé | Leonardo da Vinci’s years at the Clos Lucé
Few copies done by Leonardeschi artists are known. One of them is attributed to Bernardino Lanino (panel, 24 x 24 cm) and is held at the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh. It depicts St John the Baptist in Wilderness, however, the saint is placed to a background of grotto with some sight of high rocks, a river, riders and a hanged man. Another copy of 15th-16th centuries is held at Musee Ingres, Montauban. Another copy, attributed to follower of Cesare da Sesto was sold in auction at Christie's on 23 April 2008.
Bacchus (Leonardo) | Copies
The details of its commission and its early history remain obscure. In 1869, following Gustav Waagen methods, Baron Liphart identified this "Annunciation", newly arrived in the Uffizi Gallery from the church of San Bartolomeo a Monte Oliveto in Florence, as by the young Leonardo, still working in the studio of his master, Andrea del Verrocchio. Before Liphart the painting had been attributed to Domenico Ghirlandaio.
Annunciation (Leonardo) | Introduction
The latter Constantijn received in 1690; he mended and mounted it, believing it to be a Leonardo original, though it is more likely by either Bernardino Campi or Carlo Urbino. According to Huygens, Romeyn de Hooghe illustrated " La puttana errante", an erotic book by Pietro Aretino.
Constantijn Huygens Jr. | Drawings and paintings
[...] From here four galleries stretched like a fan, that is to say a series of undergrounds which, it is said, extends under the whole surface of the garden in front of the western front of the Rusca house and which perhaps corresponds with the tower B. This construction recalls a drawing made by Leonardo da Vinci in a manuscript of the «Bibliothèque de l'Instituit» (Ravaisson Mollien, Les manuscrits de Leonardo da Vinci B & D de la bibliothèque de l'Instituit - Paris 1883 fol 37 recto ) The issue was no longer explored by Rahn or by the then head of the department of public education Eligio Pometta, remaining a de facto curiosity in itself.
Leonardo's Rivellino | Early modern studies
Head of Christ is a c.1494 chalk and pastel study by Leonardo da Vinci for his "The Last Supper". It measures 40 by 32 cm and is now in the Pinacoteca di Brera.
Head of Christ (Leonardo) | Introduction
Andrea del Verrocchio was a sculptor, goldsmith and painter who ran a large and successful workshop in Florence in the second half of the 15th century. Among his apprentices and close associates were the painters Botticelli, Francesco Botticini, Lorenzo di Credi and Leonardo da Vinci. Verrocchio was not himself a prolific painter and very few pictures are attributed to his hand, his fame lying chiefly in his sculptured works. Verrocchio's paintings, as are typical of Florentine works of that date, are in tempera on wooden panel. The technique of painting artworks in paint, previously used in Italy only for durable items like parade shields, was introduced to Florence by Dutch and Flemish painters and their imported works at around the date that this painting was created.
The Baptism of Christ (Verrocchio and Leonardo) | Background and provenance
Leonardo's collective works compose a contribution to later generations of artists rivalled only by that of his contemporary Michelangelo. Properly named Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, Leonardo was born out of wedlock to a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, in Vinci, in the region of Florence, Italy. Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Italian painter Andrea del Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan, and he later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice. He spent his last three years in France, where he died in 1519.
Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
Further works by Leonardo held by the library include his presumed self-portrait, his study for the angel in his "Virgin of the Rocks", and his study for the angel in Verrocchio's "The Baptism of Christ".
Royal Library of Turin | History
Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian Renaissance painter and polymath who achieved legendary fame and iconic status within his own lifetime. His renown primarily rests upon his brilliant achievements as a painter, the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper", being two of the most famous artworks ever created, but also upon his diverse skills as a scientist and inventor. He became so highly valued during his lifetime that the King of France bore him home like a trophy of war, supported him in his old age and, according to legend, cradled his head as he died.
Cultural references to Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
According to Vasari, Verrocchio, on seeing the beauty of the angel that his young pupil had painted, never painted again. Florence was at this time a Republic, but the city was increasingly under the influence of a single powerful family, the Medici, led by Lorenzo de' Medici, who came to be known as "Lorenzo the Magnificent". In 1481 Leonardo commenced an important commission, the painting of a large altarpiece for the church of San Donato in Scopeto. The work was never completed. Leonardo left Florence and travelled to Milan carrying a gift from Lorenzo to the regent ruler, Ludovico Sforza.
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Biography
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. 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.
Leonardo da Vinci | Paintings of the 16th century
Several extant works, dating circa 1615–1620, are by general scholarly consensus, collaborative efforts by both father and son: they include the "Faun Teased by Putti" (c. 1615, Metropolitan Museum, NYC), "Boy with a Dragon" (c. 1616–17, Getty Museum, Los Angeles), the Aldobrandini "Four Seasons" (c. 1620, private collection), and the recently discovered "Bust of the Savior" (1615–16, New York, private collection). Sometime after the arrival of the Bernini family in Rome, word about the great talent of the boy Gian Lorenzo got around and he soon caught the attention of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew to the reigning pope, Paul V, who spoke of the boy genius to his uncle.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini | Early life
Art historians place the work within Leonardo's First Milanese period (), given similarities to his "Lady with an Ermine" found via X-ray testing, the treatment of chiaroscuro in "Virgin of the Rocks", and sketches for a bronze horse sculpture. Modern scholars have also noted that it was likely not made much later than 1487, since the work has been seen to lack some of the refinements and realism of his later works, such as "Lady with an Ermine"; Leonardo would engage in a study of human anatomy, especially the skull, in the late 1480s. The painting is therefore likely likely to have been completed during the mid–1480s, with a majority of opinion placing it as between 1483 and 1487.
Portrait of a Musician | Dating
Saint John the Baptist is a High Renaissance oil painting on walnut wood by Leonardo da Vinci. Probably completed from 1513 to 1516, it is believed to be his final painting. The original size of the painting was 69 × 57 cm. It is now exhibited at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France.
Saint John the Baptist (Leonardo) | Introduction
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was an Italian Renaissance polymath. Leonardo da Vinci may also refer to:
Leonardo da Vinci (disambiguation) | Introduction
In January 1478, Leonardo received an independent commission to paint an altarpiece for the Chapel of St. Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio, an indication of his independence from Verrocchio's studio. An anonymous early biographer, known as Anonimo Gaddiano, claims that in 1480 Leonardo was living with the Medici and often worked in the garden of the Piazza San Marco, Florence, where a Neoplatonic academy of artists, poets and philosophers organized by the Medici met. In March 1481, he received a commission from the monks of for "The Adoration of the Magi". Neither of these initial commissions were completed, being abandoned when Leonardo went to offer his services to Duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza.
Leonardo da Vinci | Professional life
The "universal genius" Leonardo da Vinci was to further perfect the aspects of pictorial art (lighting, linear and atmospheric perspective, anatomy, foreshortening and characterisation) that had preoccupied artists of the Early Renaissance, in a lifetime of studying and meticulously recording his observations of the natural world. His adoption of oil paint as his primary media meant that he could depict light and its effects on the landscape and objects more naturally and with greater dramatic effect than had ever been done before, as demonstrated in the "Mona Lisa". His dissection of cadavers carried forward the understanding of skeletal and muscular anatomy, as seen in the unfinished "Saint Jerome in the Wilderness".
Renaissance art | High Renaissance in Italy, 1495–1520
"Dead Christ Supported by the Madonna and St. John", or "Pietà"). with less harshness of contour, a broader treatment of forms and draperies and less force of religious feeling. Giovanni's early works have often been linked both compositionally and stylistically to those of his brother-in-law, Andrea Mantegna. In 1470 Giovanni received his first appointment to work along with his brother and other artists in the Scuola di San Marco, where among other subjects he was commissioned to paint a "Deluge with Noah's Ark". None of the master's works of this kind, whether painted for the various schools or confraternities or for the ducal palace, has survived.
Giovanni Bellini | Early career
He painted as late as 1694.
Sigismondo Caula | Introduction
The identity of the young woman in Leonardo's "Mona Lisa" had been difficult to ascertain due to a lack of decisive contemporary sources of information about the painting. This changed upon the discovery of a comment written by Vespucci in the margin of a 1477 edition of Cicero's ", now held by the Heidelberg University Library. The discovery was made by Dr. Armin Schlechter in 2005 while he was cataloguing the book for an incunabula exhibit at the library. The unabbreviated Latin text of the note is as follows: " (English: "Apelles the painter. That is the way Leonardo da Vinci does it with all of his pictures, like, for example, with the countenance of Lisa del Giocondo and that of Anne, the mother of the Virgin.
Agostino Vespucci | "Mona Lisa"
The outlines of this painting are very bold compared to his other works and it features detailed drapery. His early works are generally characterized by the use of trachyte marble architecture and a particular positioning of the Virgin's hand, showing the middle and ring-finger touching and widely separated from the index and pinky finger. They also are usually distinguished by their symmetry, organization, equally distributed light, and plastic-like quality to the figures.
Bartolomeo Montagna | Early Works (1480s-1499)
He studied and drew the flowers of the fields, the eddies of the river, the form of the rocks and mountains, the way light reflected from foliage and sparkled in a jewel. In particular, he studied the human form, dissecting thirty or more unclaimed cadavers from a hospital in order to understand muscles and sinews. Leonardo achieved a degree of realism in the expression of human emotion, prefigured by Giotto but unknown since Masaccio's "Adam and Eve". Leonardo's "Last Supper", painted from 1495 to 1498 in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Milan), became the benchmark for religious narrative painting for the next half millennium.
Italian Renaissance painting | Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was an Italian Renaissance polymath. Da Vinci may also refer to:
Da Vinci (disambiguation) | Introduction
It is thought that Leonardo never made a painting from it, the closest similarity being to "The Virgin and Child with St. Anne" in the Louvre. Other drawings of interest include numerous studies generally referred to as "caricatures" because, although exaggerated, they appear to be based upon observation of live models. Vasari relates that if Leonardo saw a person with an interesting face he would follow them around all day observing them. There are numerous studies of beautiful young men, often associated with Salaì, with the rare and much admired facial feature, the so-called "Grecian profile." These faces are often contrasted with that of a warrior.
Leonardo da Vinci | Drawings
The painting originally depicted John the Baptist. In the late 17th century, between the years 1683 and 1693, it was overpainted and altered to serve as "Bacchus". Cassiano dal Pozzo remarked of the painting in its former state, which he saw at Fontainebleau in 1625, that it had neither devotion, decorum nor similitude, the suavely beautiful, youthful and slightly androgynous "Giovannino" was so at variance with artistic conventions in portraying the Baptist – neither the older ascetic prophet nor the Florentine baby "Giovannino", but a type of Leonardo's invention, of a disconcerting, somewhat ambiguous sensuality, familiar in Leonardo's half-length and upward-pointing "Saint John the Baptist", also in the Louvre.
Bacchus (Leonardo) | Introduction
Jesus and the Virgin Mary are, in fact, painted yellow, the color of light. The trees are painted blue, an unusual color for trees of any kind. On the right side the most credible self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci as a 30-year-old can be seen, according to several critics. (See Angelo Paratico ) Much of the composition of this painting was influenced by an earlier work of the Northern artist Rogier van der Weyden. The relationship between figures, space and the viewer's standpoint, the high horizon, slightly raised viewpoint, space receding into the far distance, and a central figural group poised before a rock formation in the middle of the landscape are all copied from van der Weyden's "Entombment of Christ" (1460, Uffizi Gallery, Italy).
Adoration of the Magi (Leonardo) | Description
Despite his great appreciation for painting, Ghiberti asked Malatesta for leave. In 1401 he headed back to Florence to participate in a competition that was being held for the commission to make a pair of bronze doors for the Baptistery of the Cathedral of Florence.
Lorenzo Ghiberti | Early life
Despite the importance of Verrocchio's workshop in the training of younger painters, very few paintings are universally recognised as his own work and there are many problems of attribution. A painting of the Madonna with seated child in tempera on panel (now in the Berlin State Museums, Gemäldegalerie) is considered an early work of 1468–1470. A painting in the National Gallery in London (cat. no.NG2508) of the Virgin and Child with two angels in tempera on panel, which had not previously been attributed to Verrocchio, was cleaned and restored about 2010 and is now attributed to him with a date of about 1467–1469.
Andrea del Verrocchio | Painting
Close examination reveals areas of the work that have been painted or touched-up over the tempera, using the new technique of oil paint, including the landscape, the rocks seen through the brown mountain stream, and much of the figure of Jesus, bearing witness to the hand of Leonardo. Leonardo may have been the model for two works by Verrocchio: the bronze statue of "David" in the Bargello, and the Archangel Raphael in "Tobias and the Angel".
Leonardo da Vinci | Verrocchio's workshop
There are compositions for paintings, studies of details and drapery, studies of faces and emotions, of animals, babies, dissections, plant studies, rock formations, whirlpools, war machines, flying machines and architecture. These notebooks—originally loose papers of different types and sizes, were largely entrusted to Leonardo's pupil and heir Francesco Melzi after the master's death. These were to be published, a task of overwhelming difficulty because of its scope and Leonardo's idiosyncratic writing. Some of Leonardo's drawings were copied by an anonymous Milanese artist for a planned treatise on art . After Melzi's death in 1570, the collection passed to his son, the lawyer Orazio, who initially took little interest in the journals.
Leonardo da Vinci | Journals and notes
Cote described this painting as of great antiquity, probably of the 4th or 5th century, while remarking that it is impossible to ascertain the precise age of the pictures in the catacombs of Rome. The other paintings that Cote described are of much later periods, while the mosaic in the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte, in Ravenna (erected in the 4th century), which shows John baptizing Jesus by pouring water on his head from a cup, Cote explained as the product of later restoring. The font in this baptistery Cote described as ten feet in diameter and three and a half feet deep.
Baptism in early Christianity | Studies before 1950
"Saint John the Baptist" was apparently part of the French king Francis I's collection at Fontainebleau in 1542. In 1625 Charles I of England received the painting from Louis XIII of France in return for a Titian "Holy Family" and Holbein's "Portrait of Erasmus". In 1649 Charles's collection was sold, whereupon the painting entered into the hands of the banker Eberhard Jabach. After a spell in the possession of Cardinal Mazarin, in 1661 the work once again returned to the King of France – Louis XIV. Following the French Revolution the painting entered the collection at the Louvre where it remains to this day.
Saint John the Baptist (Leonardo) | Provenance
A first restoration was attempted in 1726 by Michelangelo Bellotti, who filled in missing sections with oil paint then varnished the whole mural. This repair did not last well and another restoration was attempted in 1770 by an otherwise unknown artist named Giuseppe Mazza. Mazza stripped off Bellotti's work then largely repainted the painting; he had redone all but three faces when he was halted due to public outrage. In 1796, French revolutionary anti-clerical troops used the refectory as an armory and stable; they threw stones at the painting and climbed ladders to scratch out the Apostles' eyes. Goethe wrote that in 1800, the room was flooded with two feet of water after a heavy rainstorm.
The Last Supper (Leonardo) | Damage and restorations
He was "striking and handsome" and "marvellously endowed by heaven with beauty, grace [and] outstanding physical beauty", and "displayed infinite grace in everything he did".
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Physical characteristics
Leonardo received an informal education in Latin, geometry and mathematics. In later life, Leonardo recorded few distinct childhood incidents. One was of a kite coming to his cradle and opening his mouth with its tail; he regarded this as an omen of his writing on the subject. The second occurred while he was exploring in the mountains: he discovered a cave and was both terrified that some great monster might lurk there and driven by curiosity to find out what was inside. He also seems to have remembered some of his childhood observations of water, writing and crossing out the name of his hometown in one of his notebooks on the formation of rivers.
Leonardo da Vinci | Early life
The Adoration of the Magi is an unfinished early painting by Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo was given the commission by the Augustinian monks of in Florence in 1481, but he departed for Milan the following year, leaving the painting unfinished. It has been in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence since 1670.
Adoration of the Magi (Leonardo) | Introduction
A document dated 1497 indicates that the painting was nearly completed at that date. One story goes that a prior from the monastery complained to Leonardo about its delay, enraging him. He wrote to the head of the monastery, explaining he had been struggling to find the perfect villainous face for Judas, and that if he could not find a face corresponding with what he had in mind, he would use the features of the prior who had complained.
The Last Supper (Leonardo) | Commission and creation
Although the attribution to Leonardo had been controversial in earlier centuries, it is today widely agreed by art historians to be one of his original works. No recording of a commission exists, but the attribution is based on stylistic and technical similarities to other works, notably the face of the angel and St. Jerome from "Virgin of the Rocks" and "Saint Jerome in the Wilderness" respectively. The dark background of the portrait, a style popularized by Leonardo, furthers this attribution as it appears in later portraits, such as "Lady with an Ermine", "La Belle Ferronnière" and "Saint John the Baptist".
Portrait of a Musician | Attribution
Baptism of Christ is a c.1519 oil on panel painting by Parmigianino, the earliest surviving work by the artist, produced when he was only sixteen. It is now in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. It is usually identified with an anecdote in Vasari's "Lives of the Artists":
Baptism of Christ (Parmigianino) | Introduction
His major painting of the 1490s is the "Resurrection" (painted with fellow da Vinci pupil Marco d'Oggiono and now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin). A "Madonna and Child" in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli of Milan, is one of the high points of the Lombard Quattrocento. His portraits, often in profile, and his half-length renderings of the Madonna and Child are Leonardesque in conception, though the clean hard edges of his outlines lack Leonardo's "sfumato". In Bologna, where he remained in 1500-1502, he found sympathetic patrons in the Casio family, of whom he painted several portraits and for whom he produced his masterwork, the "Pala Casio" for the Church of the Misericordia (Louvre Museum); it depicts a "Madonna and Child with John the Baptist and Saint Sebastian and two Kneeling Donors", Giacomo Marchione de' Pandolfi da Casio and his son, the Bolognese poet Girolamo Casio, who mentioned Boltraffio in some of his sonnets.
Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio | Paintings
He was employed by Ludovico from 1481 to 1499, during which time his most important works were the "Virgin of the Rocks", the "Last Supper" and a huge model of a horse for an equestrian monument which was never completed. Other important events during this time were the arrival in his studio of the boy Salaì in 1490, and in 1491 the marriage of Ludovico Sforza to Beatrice d'Este, for which he organized the celebrations. When Milan was invaded by the French in 1499, Leonardo left and spent some time in Venice, and possibly Rome and Naples before returning to Florence.
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Biography
Compositional Sketches for the Virgin Adoring the Christ Child, with and without the Infant St. John the Baptist; Diagram of a Perspectival Projection (recto); Slight Doodles (verso) is a 1480s drawing by Leonardo da Vinci. It is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Compositional Sketches for the Virgin Adoring the Christ Child, with and without the Infant St. John the Baptist | Introduction
Leonardo has depicted the consternation that occurred among the Twelve Apostles when Jesus announced that one of them would betray him. Due to the methods used, a variety of environmental factors, and intentional damage, little of the original painting remains today despite numerous restoration attempts, the last being completed in 1999.
The Last Supper (Leonardo) | Introduction
His father had married a sixteen-year-old girl named Albiera; Ser Piero married four times and produced children by his two later marriages. Leonardo's seven brothers were later to argue with him over the distribution of his father's estate. At the age of about fourteen Leonardo was apprenticed by his father to the artist Andrea del Verrocchio. Leonardo was eventually to become a paid employee of Verrocchio's studio. During his time there, Leonardo met many of the most important artists to work in Florence in the late fifteenth century including Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Pietro Perugino. Leonardo helped Verrocchio paint "The Baptism of Christ", completed around 1475.
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Biography
It shows Christ in Glory surrounded by more than 250 figures, including beatified Dominicans. In this period he painted some of his masterpieces including a version of "The Madonna of Humility", well preserved and property of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum but on loan to the MNAC of Barcelona, an "Annunciation" along with a "Madonna of the Pomegranate," at the Prado Museum.
Fra Angelico | Early life, 1395–1436
In 1621 a picture-buying agent of Ferdinando Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua bought him a painting said to be a Botticelli out of historical interest "as from the hand of an artist by whom Your Highness has nothing, and who was the master of Leonardo da Vinci". That mistake is perhaps understandable, as although Leonardo was only some six years younger than Botticelli, his style could seem to a Baroque judge to be a generation more advanced. The "Birth of Venus" was displayed in the Uffizi from 1815, but is little mentioned in travellers' accounts of the gallery over the next two decades.
Sandro Botticelli | Later reputation
He remained close with his father, who oversaw his working contracts until 1475, when he filed for emancipation. The emancipation was granted in 1477, according to legal records. Botticini's earliest works include the "Saint Nicholas and Four Female Saints" at the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, a "Saint Sebastian" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and a "Madonna adoring the Child" at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama. His earliest dated work is an altarpiece of the "Madonna and Child with Saints Sebastian, Pancras, Sebastian and Peter" (1471) at the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, which is painted under the strong influence of Verrocchio.
Francesco Botticini | Early work
His initial works were in the idiom of his master Abraham Janssens who was one of the earliest Flemish artists to paint in a Caraveggio influenced style combined with strong Classicist tendencies. This is clear in the early composition "" (Hermitage Museum, 1610s) which was painted before the artist left for Italy. In its three-dimensionality and use of Classical forms this composition is clearly indebted to Janssens. The composition "" (Spencer Museum of Art) likely dates from the artist's Italian period. The typically Italian costumes, the rather mannered poses, the vague indication of space and stereotypical rendering of heads, hands and drapery point to a style preceding that of the genre scenes he painted after 1625.
Theodoor Rombouts | Early work
The Lucan portrait of Leonardo da Vinci is a late 15th- or early 16th-century portrait of a man that was discovered in 2008 in a cupboard of a private house in Italy. It strongly resembles a portrait of Leonardo da Vinci by Cristofano dell'Altissimo held by the Uffizi Gallery. The painting was previously thought by its owners to represent Galileo but on its discovery a claim was made that it is a self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci. Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci at Vinci said in 2011 that he had excluded the possibility that it was a self-portrait, but that the painting "remains intriguing because it adds a new element to the Leonardo puzzle".
Lucan portrait of Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
Other portraits of Leonardo by himself and other hands exist, presenting a different image of Leonardo to the man as represented in the red chalk drawing. Another red chalk drawing, a profile portrait at Windsor, is attributed to his pupil Francesco Melzi. A sketch by an unknown assistant on the back of one of Leonardo's studies (c. 1517) has also been determined to be a portrait. A self-portrait from Leonardo's "Codex on the Flight of Birds" depicts the artist at age 53. Leonardo may have also included a self-portrait in Luca Pacioli's "Divina proportione", which he illustrated. A 1471 painting of Gabriel bears an inscription indicating that it is a self-portrait of Leonardo; this would be the earliest depiction of the artist.
Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk | Other portraits
Annunciation is a painting attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, dating from circa 1472–1475. It is housed in the Uffizi gallery of Florence, Italy. Leonardo might have finished the "Annunciation" in his early twenties. The subject matter is drawn from Luke 1.26-39 and depicts the angel Gabriel, sent by God to announce to a virgin, Mary, that she would miraculously conceive and give birth to a son, to be named Jesus, and to be called "the Son of God" whose reign would never end. The subject was very popular for artworks and had been depicted many times in the art of Florence, including several examples by the Early Renaissance painter Fra Angelico.
Annunciation (Leonardo) | Introduction
Leonardo da Vinci and A Memory of His Childhood () is a 1910 essay by Sigmund Freud about Leonardo da Vinci. It consists of a psychoanalytic study of Leonardo's life based on his paintings.
Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood | Introduction
Leonardo appears to have had no close relationships with women except for his friendship with Cecilia Gallerani and the two Este sisters, Beatrice and Isabella. While on a journey that took him through Mantua, he drew a portrait of Isabella that appears to have been used to create a painted portrait, now lost. Beyond friendship, Leonardo kept his private life secret. His sexuality has been the subject of satire, analysis, and speculation. This trend began in the mid-16th century and was revived in the 19th and 20th centuries, most notably by Sigmund Freud in his "Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood".
Leonardo da Vinci | Personal life
His earliest known painting is (circa 1515–1520, collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh). This early work shows the painter still struggling with his figures. The neatly painted Renaissance architectural details indicate the artist's interest in contemporary artistic developments in Italy. The result is a work rooted in the 15th century Flemish tradition of Early Netherlandish painting but with a focus on Italy and the mannerism of among others Bernard van Orley. His principal panel works are the monogrammed wings of a dismembered altarpiece on the "Conversion of Saint Paul" and "The Fall of Simon the Magus" (now in the M - Museum Leuven) which are monumental and in a classicizing style.
Jan Rombouts the Elder | Work
He also exhibited at the "Mary Magdalene at Calvary" (1894) and the cartoons for the fresco at the "Esposizioni riunite" in Milan. He next worked in Rome at San Clemente al Laterano and on Malta at San'Agostino Church, followed by a fresco in the apse of Santa Maria Assunta, the parish church in Allerona. In 1898 he produced the painting "St Margaret of Alacoque in Ecstacy before a Vision of the Holy Cross". He painted a "Madonna and Child" on a gold background for the chapel at palazzo Gianturco in Naples and also painted frescoes on the chapel walls of "Christ in Glory with Angels".
Arturo Viligiardi | Early works
It is attributed to Leonardo by a number of historians of Art: Prof. Hoehnsttatt Peter (University of Parma), Alessandro Tomei (D'Annunzio University of Chieti–Pescara), Maria Cristina Paoluzzi (D'Annunzio University of Chieti–Pescara and Milan), Jan Royt (University of Prague), David Bershad (University of Calgary) and Orest Kormashov (University of Tallinn)..
Lucan portrait of Leonardo da Vinci | Attribution
Two early copies of "The Last Supper" are known to exist, presumed to be work by Leonardo's assistants. The copies are almost the size of the original, and have survived with a wealth of original detail still intact. One, by Giampietrino, is in the collection of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and the other, by Cesare da Sesto, is installed at the Church of St. Ambrogio in Ponte Capriasca, Switzerland. A third copy (oil on canvas) is painted by Andrea Solari (c. 1520) and is on display in the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of the Tongerlo Abbey, Belgium.
The Last Supper (Leonardo) | Important copies
Rio who wrote in 1861: "He towered above all other artists through the strength and the nobility of his talents."
Leonardo da Vinci | Fame and reputation
Among his early works are paintings of the "Miracles of Pius V", the "Conversion of a Heretic" and the "Healing of a Madwoman" (all mid-1720s; Mantua, Museum of the Ducal Palace of Mantua), initially painted for the church of Saint Maurice in Mantua. He painted depictions of the evangelists St. John, St. Mark and St. Luke (all late 1720s) for the parish church of Vasto di Goito. He painted the "Baptism", the "Ecstasy of St. Aloysius Gonzaga" and the "Ecstasy of Saints Francis & Anthony" (1732) for the parish church of Borgoforte. Seven canvases depicting the Life of Alexander the Great were painted for Giacomo Biondi, one of the artist's early patrons.
Giuseppe Bazzani | Biography
Leonardo was given an allowance of 33 ducats a month, and according to Vasari, decorated a lizard with scales dipped in quicksilver. The pope gave him a painting commission of unknown subject matter, but cancelled it when the artist set about developing a new kind of varnish. Leonardo became ill, in what may have been the first of multiple strokes leading to his death. He practiced botany in the Gardens of Vatican City, and was commissioned to make plans for the pope's proposed draining of the Pontine Marshes. He also dissected cadavers, making notes for a treatise on vocal cords; these he gave to an official in hopes of regaining the pope's favor, but was unsuccessful.
Leonardo da Vinci | Old age and death
In an early example of ichnology, he explains that the fossils of marine shells would have been scattered in such a deluge, and not gathered in groups, which were in fact left at various times on mountains in Lombardy. He discredits pagan mythology as well, saying that gods the size of planets would appear as mere specks of light in the universe—also calling these personifications "mortal ... putrid and corrupt in their sepulchers."
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Philosophy and religion
Back in Milan, he executed a "Baptism of Christ", in collaboration with Bernardino Bernazzano (now lost) and a "Salomè", acquired by Rudolf II and now at the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna. In 1517 he returned to southern Italy; in Messina executed an "Adoration of the Kings" which influenced numerous artists of southern Italy, it can be found in the Capodimonte Museum of Naples. Sometime between 1516 and 1519, he completed his "Adoration of the Magi". He returned to Milan in 1520, where he painted the "Madonna in Glory with Saints" polyptych for the church of San Rocco (now in the Castello Sforzesco).
Cesare da Sesto | Introduction
It is the first [documented] time where a landscape was drawn just for the sake of it." Among his famous drawings are the "Vitruvian Man", a study of the proportions of the human body; the "Head of an Angel", for "The Virgin of the Rocks" in the Louvre; a botanical study of "Star of Bethlehem"; and a large drawing (160×100 cm) in black chalk on coloured paper of "The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist" in the National Gallery, London. This drawing employs the subtle "sfumato" technique of shading, in the manner of the "Mona Lisa".
Leonardo da Vinci | Drawings
The personal life of Leonardo da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) has been a subject of interest, inquiry, and speculation since the years immediately following his death. Leonardo has long been regarded as the archetypal Renaissance man, described by the Renaissance biographer Giorgio Vasari as having qualities that "transcended nature" and being "marvellously endowed with beauty, grace and talent in abundance". Interest in and curiosity about Leonardo has continued unabated for five hundred years. Modern descriptions and analysis of Leonardo's character, personal desires and intimate behavior have been based upon various sources: records concerning him, his biographies, his own written journals, his paintings, his drawings, his associates, and commentaries that were made concerning him by contemporaries.
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
It is likely that Leonardo da Vinci was already familiar with this work before he painted his own Last Supper in a more dramatic form to contrast with the stillness of these works, so that more emotion would be displayed.
Andrea del Castagno | "The Last Supper"
Vasari also says: In the normal course of events many men and women are born with various remarkable qualities and talents; but occasionally, in a way that transcends nature, a single person is marvellously endowed by heaven with beauty, grace and talent in such abundance that he leaves other men far behind... Everyone acknowledged that this was true of Leonardo da Vinci, an artist of outstanding physical beauty who displayed infinite grace in everything he did and who cultivated his genius so brilliantly that all problems he studied were solved with ease. While painting "The Last Supper", Leonado wrote, "Wine is good, but water is preferable at table.
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Character