Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo

Florentine, 1452 - 1519

Born on April 15, 1452 at Vinci near Florence, Leonardo was trained, according to Vasari, in "all matters pertaining to design" by Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading sculptor of the time. Confirmation of Vasari's claim comes from a note in Leonardo's manuscript G, referring to his master's method of fabricating the copper ball set atop the cupola of Florence Cathedral in 1471. Two legal documents of 1476 further indicate that he was still in Verrocchio's workshop even after joining the painters' Confraternity of Saint Luke in 1472. Having learned many of the skills that would later serve him as painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer, around 1482 Leonardo departed Florence for Milan. There he remained until late in 1499, performing a variety of tasks for Duke Lodovico Sforza and his court. When Leonardo returned to Florence in 1500, he was, as the creator of the Last Supper in Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, the most celebrated painter of the day. In Florence he completed those masterpieces that are commonly acknowledged to have changed the course of Western art: the Mona Lisa, the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (both now in the Musée du Louvre) and the (lost) Battle of Anghiari. After working for the French conquerors of the Sforza in Milan (1506/1508-1513) and for Giuliano de' Medici in Rome (1513-1516), Leonardo left Italy to serve as chief painter and engineer to the French King Francis I. He died in France on May 2, 1519. [This is the artist's biography published in the NGA Systematic Catalogue]

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This square portrait shows the head and shoulders of a young woman in front of a spiky bush that fills much of the background except for a landscape view that extends into the deep distance to our right. The woman's body is angled to our right but her face turns to us. She has chalk-white, smooth skin with heavily lidded, light brown eyes, and her pale pink lips are closed. Pale blush highlights her cheeks, and she looks either at us or very slightly away from our eyes. Her brown hair is parted down the middle and pulled back, but tight, lively curls frame her face. Her hair turns gold where the light shines on it. She wears a brown dress, trimmed along the square neckline with gold. The front of the bodice is tied with a blue ribbon, and the lacing holes are also edged with gold. A sheer white veil covers her chest and is pinned at the center with a small gold ball. The bush fills the space around her head with copper-brown, spiky leaves. A river winds between trees and rolling hills in the distance to our right. Trees and a town along the horizon, which comes about halfway up the painting, is pale blue under an ice-blue sky.
Leonardo da Vinci, Ginevra de' Benci [obverse], c. 1474/1478, oil on panel, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1967.6.1.a

Ginevra de' Benci [obverse]

Leonardo da Vinci · c. 1474/1478 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1967.6.1.a

A laurel branch to the left and a palm branch to the right, both in muted green tones, curve toward each other, crossing near the top to frame a sprig of spiky juniper in this square painting. A scroll with the Latin words “VIRTVUTEM FORMA DECORAT” weaves around and across the circle made by the branches near the bottom of the composition. The laurel has slightly serrated, oblong leaves that come to a point at either end. The palm has closely packed, narrow leaves that flare out like a feather to our right. The laurel, palm, and delicate twig of juniper are cut off near the bottom edge, where there is an area of flat brown that rises like a mound at the middle and tapers to each side. The rest of the background is dark brown speckled with rose pink, and a crimson-red, round seal is pressed into the top right corner.
Leonardo da Vinci, Wreath of Laurel, Palm, and Juniper with a Scroll inscribed Virtutem Forma Decorat [reverse], c. 1474/1478, tempera on panel, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1967.6.1.b

Wreath of Laurel, Palm, and Juniper with a Scroll inscribed Virtutem Forma Decorat [reverse]

Leonardo da Vinci · c. 1474/1478 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1967.6.1.b

Shown against a black background, the head and shoulders of a young lady with pale, peachy skin and long, wavy brown hair fill this vertical portrait painting. The woman faces our left in profile and she looks off in that direction with light brown eyes, her head tipped slightly forward. Her skin is smooth and her full cheeks are lightly flushed. The eyebrow we can see is thin and arched. She has a small, straight, rounded nose and her full terracotta-red lips are closed. Her hair is gathered back over her shoulders, but a few fine, curling tendrils fall over her chest. She wears a thin necklace that disappears into the cleavage of her low-cut, navy-blue bodice, which has sky-blue, puffed sleeves. The back of her head is lost in shadow against the dark background.
Anonymous Artist, Portrait of a Young Lady, c. 1500, oil on panel transferred to hardboard, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.66

Portrait of a Young Lady

Anonymous Artist · c. 1500 · oil on panel transferred to hardboard ·  Accession ID  1952.5.66

Leonardo da Vinci, Grotesque Head of an Old Woman, 1489/1490, pen and brown ink on laid paper; laid down, Gift of Dian Woodner, 2022.84.1

Grotesque Head of an Old Woman

Leonardo da Vinci · 1489/1490 · pen and brown ink on laid paper; laid down ·  Accession ID  2022.84.1

Five sketches in brown ink are spaced around a vertically oriented sheet of paper. In the top left quadrant, a bearded man faces our right in profile. He has short, curly hair, a deeply lined face, a pronounced underbite, and the tip of his long nose points down. Two independent, wrinkle-lined eyes are sketched in the top right quadrant of the page. Below are two drawings of women with their shoulders angled away from us to the right. Near the bottom left and smaller in scale, a woman looks over her shoulder at us with a slight smile on her lips. In the bottom right quadrant, a woman with her hair pulled back under a snood looks to our right in profile with her chin tipped up. The neckline of both women’s bodices dip across the shoulder blades in the back. The paper is speckled with faint brown stains and spots.
Leonardo da Vinci, Sheet of Studies [recto], probably 1470/1480, pen and brown ink over leadpoint with blind stylus on laid paper, The Armand Hammer Collection, 1991.217.2.a

Sheet of Studies [recto]

Leonardo da Vinci · probably 1470/1480 · pen and brown ink over leadpoint with blind stylus on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1991.217.2.a

A woman wearing a mantle, which drapes over her head and shoulders, and holding her hands together in prayer is lightly sketched in black chalk in this vertical drawing. Her body is angled to our left. Her head tips in that direction, and she looks off into the distance. Forms to the left of the woman are studies of a man’s torso and a muscular leg. The sketches are all faintly drawn on paper that now has some brown speckling.
Leonardo da Vinci, Study of a Madonna [verso], probably 1470/1480, black chalk on laid paper, The Armand Hammer Collection, 1991.217.2.b

Study of a Madonna [verso]

Leonardo da Vinci · probably 1470/1480 · black chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1991.217.2.b

British 19th Century, The Last Supper, probably 19th century, etching, Rosenwald Collection, 1980.45.1727

The Last Supper

British 19th Century · probably 19th century · etching ·  Accession ID  1980.45.1727

Raphael Morghen, The Last Supper, 1800, engraving, Gift of David Alan Brown, 2022.150.5

The Last Supper

Raphael Morghen · 1800 · engraving ·  Accession ID  2022.150.5

Gerard Edelinck, The Fight for the Standard, 1657/1666, engraving on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 2003.129.1

The Fight for the Standard

Gerard Edelinck · 1657/1666 · engraving on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2003.129.1

Sketched with brown ink on now-darkened paper, thirteen men sit on the far side of a long table. They gather in clusters of three as they look and gesture toward a man at the center, Jesus, who has long hair and a beard. They all wear robes. Square openings in the space behind the table recede into the distance but are lightly sketched. Subtle vertical lines of the laid paper are visible, and the bottom center is stamped with a letter R.
Vincenzo Tamagni, a) The Last Supper; b) Putti, c. 1515, a) pen and brown ink on two joined sheets of laid paper; b) pen and brown ink on laid paper, Gift of David E. Rust, 2009.54.9

a) The Last Supper; b) Putti

Vincenzo Tamagni · c. 1515 · a) pen and brown ink on two joined sheets of laid paper; b) pen and brown ink on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2009.54.9

Bibliography

1878

  • Vasari, Giorgio. Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architetti. Edited by Gaetano Milanesi. 9 vols. Florence, 1878-1885: 4(1879):17-53, commentary 54-90.

1988

  • Clark, Kenneth. Leonardo da Vinci. An Account of His Development as an Artist. Cambridge, 1939. Rev. ed., Intro. by Martin Kemp, London, 1988.

2003

  • Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 357.