Leonardo Da Vinci
Biography And Paintings Of Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, Italian Sculptor and Painter Of The High Renaissance Era

Grotesque Profile (c.1487)
Drawing.

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)

One of the greatest Italian artists, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was also a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, musician and writer. He is counted (along with Michelangelo and Raphael) as one of the three great creators of the High Renaissance of the sixteenth century (1600-1625). Renowned principally as a painter, Leonardo's creative gifts were so so diverse that he brought hardly any major enterprise to a conclusion. Only a fraction of his fine art painting survives, although a number of drawing sketchbooks crammed with figure drawing studies, have survived to reflect the awesome talents of this Florentine genius. Considered to be one of the greatest of all Old Masters. in the history of art, Da Vinci was a pioneer of the oil painting technique known as sfumato, in which the transitions from light to dark are so gradual they are almost imperceptible - a significant improvement on tempera painting. This method is especially visible in his supreme masterpiece the Mona Lisa (La Gioconda).

Curiously, none of Da Vinci's paintings are signed. Three of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous pictures are: Vitruvian Man (c.1485); The Last Supper (1495-8); the Mona Lisa (1503-5).

Probably the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa, or La Gioconda (La Joconde) (now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris) is a portrait painted in oils on a panel. It is named after its subject, Lisa del Giocondo, born Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant. ('Mona' is a polite form of address like 'Madam' or 'my lady'). Note the detail of the face, showing the subtle shading effect of sfumato, particularly in the shadows around the eyes.

• X-ray tests have established that there are three versions of the Mona Lisa hidden under the present one.
• About 6 million people view the painting each year.
• The Mona Lisa was stolen for 2 years in 1911-13, doused in acid and attacked with a rock in 1956.

• According to Dr. Lillian Schwartz of Bell Labs, the Mona Lisa is actually a self-portrait of Leonardo himself. Digital analysis of Leonardo's face and the Mona Lisa shows that both faces align perfectly.
• Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code, alleges that the name Mona Lisa derives from an anagram of Amon, Egyptian god of male fertility, and L'Isa, the French term for Isis, Egyptian goddess of female fertility.

The Mona Lisa is the central exhibit in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Some art curators value it in the region of $500 million. It's beauty and visual effect lies in the oil painting technique (known as sfumato), created by Leonardo, which allowed him to execute the sort of subtle atmospheric shading which was impossible to produce with the egg-based temera paint used by his contemporaries.

The Vitruvian Man (now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice) is a world-famous drawing with accompanying notes created by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1492 as recorded in one of his journals. It portrays a nude male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart within a circle and square. Sometimes referred to as the Canon of Proportions, it was created as a study of the proportions of the (male) human body as described by Vitruvius. The Vitruvian Man remains one of the most copied images in the world today.

The Last Supper (Italian: Il Cenacolo or L'Ultima Cena), now in the dining hall at Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, is a Renaissance wall-painting - probably the most famous example of the genre of history painting - which displays the dramatic movement and chiaroscuro (depiction of light and shade) that characterizes Leonardo's mature style. The work depicts the scene of the Last Supper from the final days of Jesus as narrated in the Gospel of John 1:21, just after Jesus has announced that one of his twelve apostles would betray him. It shows the reactions of each disciple to the news.

Detail of Last Supper (Jesus in Red;
Thomas and James)

From left to right (On main picture, above):

• Bartholomew, James and Andrew are surprised.
• Judas Iscariot is quiet, Peter is angry, John swoons.
• Thomas is upset; James is stunned. Philip seeks an explanation.
• Matthew, Jude and Simon comprise the final group of three. Jude and Matthew turn to Simon, as if requesting an explanation.

The painting contains several allusions to the number 3, (perhaps the Holy Trinity). The disciples are seated in groups of three; there are three windows; and Jesus' figure resembles a triangle.

The accounts of Leonardo's painstaking execution of The Last Supper led many to regard him as the originator of the idea of the painter as a contemplative and creative thinker, rather than a mere tradesman whose job was to cover so many square yards a day. This notion concerning the dignity of the artist was taken up and developed further by Michelangelo and other sixteenth century painters.

The Last Supper is not a true fresco since it was painted on a dry wall rather than on wet plaster, and Da Vinci sealed the stone wall with a layer of pitch, gesso and mastic, then painted over it with tempera. This painting-method has led to noticeable deterioration over the years.

The painting has been the subject of endless interpretation (eg. in the novel, the Da Vinci Code), but most speculation is unconfirmed by scientific study.

Along with Giotto, Botticelli, Raphael and Michelangelo, Leonardo remains one of the greatest artists of the High Renaissance and perhaps of all time.

• For more biographies of great painters and sculptors, see Famous Artists.
• For more about painting and sculpture in Ireland, see: Irish Art Guide

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