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Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer, and is considered one of the greatest painters of all time. He trained as a painter during the Renaissance and became a master of the craft. His paintings are known for their realism, achieved through his use of linear perspective, vanishing points, and the soft clouding effect of his signature sfumato method. He also pioneered the use of the golden ratio in his works, which further added to the lifelike quality of his paintings. Leonardo's surviving works include the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and Lady with an Ermine, each of which showcases his exceptional talent and influence on the art world.
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What You'll Learn
Renaissance master
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer. He is widely considered one of the most gifted and inventive men in history, with his artistic talents recognised early on in his life.
During the Renaissance, European artists began to study nature more closely, aiming to paint realistic images of the world. Leonardo da Vinci was a master of this craft. He recognised that one way to paint scenes realistically was to carefully observe how animals, people, and landscapes truly looked. He would also note the differences in how an object appeared when it was close by or far away, or when it was seen in bright or dim light.
Leonardo da Vinci's powers of observation and skill as an illustrator enabled him to notice and recreate the effects he saw in nature, adding a special liveliness to his portraits. He was among the first to take a scientific approach to understanding how our world works and how we see it. He created illustrations for "De Divina Proportione" (On the Divine Proportion), a book about mathematical proportions and their applications to art and architecture.
Leonardo da Vinci's total output in painting is rather small, with less than 20 surviving paintings that can be attributed to him, and several of those are unfinished. Two of his most important works, "The Battle of Anghiari" and "Leda", were never completed and have survived only in copies.
Despite the small number of surviving works, Leonardo da Vinci is renowned for his artistic skill and the impact he had on the art world. His most famous painting, the "Mona Lisa", is considered the most famous single painting in history and draws thousands of visitors to the Louvre Museum in Paris each day.
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Sfumato method
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer. He is best known for his paintings, notably the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Da Vinci's total output in painting is rather small, with less than 20 surviving paintings that can be attributed to him.
One of Leonardo da Vinci's most influential techniques was his pioneering use of the sfumato method. Sfumato is a painting technique that involves softening the transition between colours, mimicking an area beyond what the human eye is focusing on, or the out-of-focus plane. The term "sfumato" is Italian, which translates to "soft", "vague", or "blurred". The technique was popularized by Renaissance masters like Leonardo da Vinci, who used it to create atmospheric and almost dreamy depictions.
Leonardo da Vinci described the sfumato technique as "without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke or beyond the focus plane". Sfumato is considered to be one of four painting techniques used by Italian High Renaissance painters, along with cangiante, chiaroscuro, and unione.
Da Vinci implemented the sfumato method in many of his works, including the Virgin of the Rocks and his famous painting of the Mona Lisa, particularly around the subject's face. The soft transitions in colour used around the face depict a sense of youth and innocence about the subject. There is a powerful contrast between these soft transitions and the sharp edge that separates the subject from the black background.
Other prominent practitioners of the sfumato technique included Correggio, Raphael, and Giorgione. Raphael's Madonna of the Meadow and Giorgione's The Three Philosophers are famous examples of the use of the sfumato technique.
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Realism and perspective
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer, whose mastery of art epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. He trained as a painter during the Renaissance and became a master of the craft.
During the Renaissance, European artists began to study nature more closely, aiming to paint realistic images of the world. They learned to create lifelike people and animals, and they became adept at creating the illusion of depth and distance on flat surfaces using linear perspective.
Da Vinci's powers of observation and illustration enabled him to notice and recreate the effects he saw in nature, adding a special liveliness to his portraits. He constantly sought to explain what he observed, and his notebooks reveal his scientific approach to understanding the world and how we see it.
Da Vinci recognized that one way to paint scenes realistically was to observe carefully how animals, people, and landscapes truly appeared. He noted the differences in how objects appeared when viewed from varying distances and lighting conditions. He wrote detailed notes and made sketches of his observations throughout his life, as evidenced by his notebooks.
Da Vinci's understanding of perspective was integral to his artistic style. He described perspective as:
> Perspective is nothing else than seeing a place or objects behind a plane of glass, quite transparent, on the surface of which the objects behind the glass are to be drawn.
He also learned the rules of linear perspective and practiced using the window as a device for drawing perspective while apprenticed in Andrea del Verrocchio's studio.
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Scientific approach
Leonardo da Vinci's approach to art was deeply informed by his scientific curiosity and his desire to understand the world around him. He was trained as a painter during the Renaissance, a period when European artists began to study nature more closely, aiming to create realistic images of the world. This involved learning to depict lifelike people and animals, as well as mastering the illusion of depth and distance on flat surfaces using linear perspective.
Da Vinci's scientific approach to art is evident in his meticulous powers of observation and illustration. He studied and sketched the world around him, noting the effects of light and distance on objects. He understood that careful observation of animals, people, and landscapes was essential for painting realistic scenes. This is exemplified in his painting "Lady with an Ermine," where he captures the anatomy and character of his subject, Cecilia Gallerani, through her posture and expression.
Da Vinci's notebooks reveal his sharp intellect and contributions to art, including methods of representing space and three-dimensional objects. He also created illustrations for Luca Pacioli's book, "De Divina Proportione," which explored the mathematical concept of the golden ratio and its applications in art and architecture. Da Vinci's understanding of these mathematical proportions is evident in his own works, where he employs the golden ratio to create realistic perspectives.
The artist's scientific approach extended beyond mathematics and anatomy to the very philosophy of art. He sought a universal language in painting, using perspective and scientific observation to create faithful renditions of life. This call to objectivity set a standard for 16th-century painters who followed in his footsteps.
Da Vinci's scientific curiosity and relentless pursuit of knowledge in his art resulted in many unfinished projects, but also some of the most lifelike and complex representations of human nature. His works, though few in number, continue to inspire and influence artists centuries later.
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Complex compositions
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer. He trained as a painter during the Renaissance and became a master of the craft. During the Renaissance, artists in Europe focused on studying nature to paint realistic images of the world. They learned to create lifelike people and animals, and they became skilled at creating the illusion of depth and distance on flat surfaces by using the techniques of linear perspective.
Da Vinci's powers of observation and skill as an illustrator enabled him to notice and recreate the effects he saw in nature, adding a special liveliness to his portraits. He constantly tried to explain what he saw, and his notebooks reveal a sharp intellect and a scientific approach to understanding how the world works and how we see it.
Da Vinci's total output in painting is rather small, with less than 20 surviving paintings that can be definitively attributed to him, and several of those are unfinished. However, he is known for creating innovative compositions and experimenting with methods of representing space and three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface. He also investigated anatomy to accurately represent the human body and considered the human psyche to illustrate character.
One of his most famous paintings, the Mona Lisa, is a seemingly ordinary portrait of a young woman dressed modestly in a thin veil, sombre colours, and no jewellery. The painting's simplicity belies Da Vinci's talent for realism. The subject's softly modelled face showcases his skillful handling of sfumato, an artistic technique that uses subtle gradations of light and shadow, rather than line, to model form. The delicate veil, finely painted tresses, and careful rendering of folded fabric reveal Da Vinci's patience in recreating his studied observations.
Another famous painting by Da Vinci is Lady with an Ermine, which is believed to depict Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of his patron, Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan. The ermine was often used as an emblem for the duke. In this painting, Da Vinci captures the girl's youth and genial nature in her guileless features, attentive gaze, and tender embrace of the ermine. Her slender hand reveals the complicated bone structure beneath the skin, showcasing his knowledge of anatomy and his ability to represent character in posture and expression.
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Frequently asked questions
Leonardo da Vinci was a Renaissance painter who helped bring about a new era in Western art and civilisation. He was a master of his craft, known for his realistic and lifelike paintings, which were achieved through his use of linear perspective, vanishing points, and the soft clouding effect of his signature sfumato method.
Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting is the Mona Lisa, which resides in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Other notable works include Lady with an Ermine, The Last Supper, The Virgin of the Rocks, and Salvator Mundi.
There are fewer than 20 surviving paintings that can be definitively attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, and several of those are unfinished.
Leonardo da Vinci's paintings were typically executed in oil on wood panels.
