Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (Italian: [leoˈnardo da vˈvintʃi]; 15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest polymaths of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. His genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination".
Leonardo was, and is, renowned as one of the greatest painters of all time. Among his works, the Mona Lisa is the most famous and most parodied portrait and The Last Supper the most reproduced religious painting of all time, with their fame approached only by Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam. Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon, being reproduced on items as varied as the euro coin, textbooks, and T-shirts. Perhaps fifteen of his paintings have survived, the small number because of his constant, and frequently disastrous, experimentation with new techniques, and his chronic procrastination. Nevertheless, these few works, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, compose a contribution to later generations of artists rivalled only by that of his contemporary, Michelangelo. (Wikipedia)
Portrait of Mona Lisa
Monalisa
Portrait of Mona Lisa. (1479-1528), Oil on wood, 77 x 53 cm (30 x 20 7/8 in), Musee du Louvre, Paris.
La Gioconda (also known as Mona Lisa) was married to Francesco del Giocondo in 1495.She was made immortal through this portrait by Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci loved this portrait very much that he always carried it with him. It was sold to Francois I of France eventually and is now in the collection of Musee du Louvre, Paris.
The Isleworth Mona Lisa
The Isleworth Mona Lisa
The Isleworth Mona Lisa, not showing the pillars. Oil on canvas 84.5 x 64.5 cm
This version of the Mona Lisa was bought in 1914 by the artist and critic Hugh Blaker, who lived in Isleworth, in west London. Unlike the Louvre's Mona Lisa, around 1503-19, the painting is done on canvas (the original is on panel), it has columns on the sides of the picture and the landscape is very simple. Blacker reported that the picture had come from a Somerset aristocratic collection. In 1962, the painting was bought by the UK-based art collector Henry Pulitzer, who exhibited it very briefly in Phoenix, Arizona, in a commercial gallery.
Salvator Mundi (Leonardo)
Salvator Mundi (Leonardo) c.1500
Salvator Mundi is a painting of Christ as Salvator Mundi (Latin: Saviour of The World) by Leonardo da Vinci, dated to c. 1500. The painting shows Jesus, in Renaissance dress, giving a benediction with his raised right hand and crossed fingers while holding a transparent rock crystal orb in his left hand, signaling his role as savior of the world and master of the cosmos, and representing the 'crystalline sphere' of the heavens, as it was perceived during the Renaissance. Around 20 other versions of the work are known, by students and followers of Leonardo, and some chalk preparatory drawings are held in the Royal Collection.
Long thought to be a copy, veiled with overpaints, of a lost original, it was rediscovered in 2005, restored, and included in a major Leonardo exhibition at the National Gallery, London, in 2011–12. Several leading scholars have since considered it to be an original work by Leonardo da Vinci,[3] although this attribution has been disputed by other specialists.
It is one of fewer than 20 known works by Leonardo, and was the only one to remain in private hands. It was sold at auction by Christie's in New York, on 15 November 2017, for $450.3 million, setting a new record for most expensive painting ever sold.
Salvator Mundi (Leonardo)
Left: Salvator Mundi (black and white photograph c.1908-10) before restoration
Right: Salvator Mundi after restoration
Lady with an Ermine
Lady with an Ermine. (1483-1490), Oil on wood, 53.4 x 39.3 cm (21 x 15 1/2 in); Czartoryski Museum, Cracow.
Ginevra de' Benci
Ginevra de' Benci
Ginevra de' Benci. (1474), Oil on wood, 38.2 x 36.7 cm (15 1/8 x 14 1/2 in); National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The Last Supper, pre-restoration version
The Last Supper
The Last Supper. (1498), Fresco, 460 x 880 cm (15 x 29 ft);
Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Refectory), Milan .
