Leonardo da Vinci

Da Vinci 1452-1519 Florentine painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and scholar, and one of the greatest minds of the Renaissance. Designed a helicopter, a parachute.

The illegitimate son of a 25-year-old notary and a peasant girl. Leonardo was born in Vinci just outside Florence. His father brought him up, while his mother married another man and moved to a neighboring town. They had other children from their marriages and they eventually supplied him with a total of 17 half sisters and brothers.

Between 1490 and 1495 he developed his habit of recording his studies in illustrated notebooks. His work covered four main themes: painting, architecture, the elements of mechanics, and human anatomy. 5000 pages of notes and documents. He made notes in mirror-writing, their were decoded three hundred years after his death.

It’s a fact, that he never married.

The French king, Francis I (1494–1547), invited Leonardo to his court at Fontainebleau, gave him the title of first painter, architect, and mechanic to the king, and provided him with a country house at Cloux. Leonardo was revered for his knowledge more than for any work he produced in France. Legend has it that King Francis was at his side when he died, holding Leonardo's head in his arms.

His painted legacy is not extensive. 12 paintings only are signed by the artist. 2 of which are in Russia.

Madonna with a Flower (Benois Madonna)1478 Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519 Oil on canvas; 49.5 X 33 cm

Painted it at the age of 26.

Leonardo da Vinci presents the traditional subject as a genre scene, in which a young mother, shown with the dress and hairstyle fashionable in Leonardo's time (the forehead was shaven to look larger – it was considered to be beautiful at that time), is playing with her son. She holds out a four-petalled flower to her child. This traditional symbol of the Cross is taken by the Child as an innocent toy, which he seeks to grasp in his first attempts to know the world. It looks like the Child is afraid that the Mother can take the flower away and he wants to grasp it in order to have a chance to play with it.

It feels like the both discover something new – She gets the first feeling of being a mother, while He discovers this wordld getting the first impression about what life is like.

The use of the oil painting technique - still new in Italy - enabled the artist to achieve depth and intensity of colouring and transparency in the effects of light and shade.

New: studied anatomy – tries to show his knowledge of the anatomy of human body, especially the body of an infant. Only some details give us evidence that these are Madonna and Christ like traditional golen halos /ˈheɪləʊ/ (нимб) over their heads, otherwise they would look like ordinary people.

This work came from the M.A. Benois collection.

The Madonna and Child (The Litta Madonna)

1490 - 1491

This painting would seem to have been produced in Milan, where the artist moved at the age of 30. It was one of a number of works to proclaim the arrival of a new period in art, which was to become known as the High Renaissance.

The beautiful woman feeding her child seems to be an embodiment of motherhood and motherly love, perceived as perhaps the greatest human value. The composition is simple and balance. Beyond the symmetrical windows lies an endless mountain landscape, recalling the harmony and vastness of all Creation.

Here Madonna doesn`t look so real as Benois Madonna. She is rather an ideal woman to embody the Renaissance ideal af a human being where physical perfection is inseparable from spiritual elevation.

Symbolic detail – a goldfinch in baby`s hand which is considered to be a symbol of Christ himself.

According to some evidence Vanci didn’t finish it – let the students.

There is a preparatory drawing for this canvas in the Louvre.

The painting is also known by the name of its previous owner, Count Antonio Litta, from whom it was acquired in 1865.