Leonardo da Vinci

Timeline: The High Renaissance

The first object of the painter is to make a flat plane appear as a body in relief and projecting from that plane.
-- Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo DA VINCI (b. 1452, Vinci, Republic of Florence [now in Italy]--d. May 2, 1519, Cloux, Fr.), Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. His Last Supper (1495-97) and Mona Lisa (1503-06) are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance. His notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that were centuries ahead of his time.

• From Sketches to Paintings

Ginevra de' Benci
c. 1474 (150 Kb); Oil on wood, 38.2 x 36.7 cm (15 1/8 x 14 1/2 in); National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

The Adoration of the Magi
1481-82 (200 Kb); Yellow ochre and brown ink on panel, 246 x 243 cm (8 x 8 ft); Uffizi, Florence

Lady with an Ermine
1483-90 (150 Kb); Oil on wood, 53.4 x 39.3 cm (21 x 15 1/2 in); Czartoryski Museum, Cracow

Madonna Litta
c. 1490-91 (150 Kb); Tempera on canvas, transferred from panel, 42 x 33 cm (16 1/2 x 13 in); Hermitage, St. Petersburg

The Last Supper
1498 (180 Kb); Fresco, 460 x 880 cm (15 x 29 ft); Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Refectory), Milan

A copy made by an apprentice of a da Vinci painting which never dried
Da vinci made numerous experiments using different colours and when painting this particular church he failed.

Portrait de Mona Lisa

The Virgin of the Rocks
1503-06 (140 Kb); Oil on wood, 189.5 x 120 cm (6 x 4 ft); National Gallery, London

External links and references: Wikipedia article on Leonardo da Vinci