Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he also became known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and palaeontology.
Leonardo is widely regarded to have been a genius who epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal and is often credited as the founder of the High Renaissance. Despite having many lost works and fewer than 25 attributed major works—including numerous unfinished works—he created some of the most influential paintings in history.
He is also the most googled artist in the world!
Paintings
It is easier to group the paintings by museum/gallery.
Louvre, Paris
The Louvre is a national art museum in Paris and home to some of the most canonical works of Western art, including the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.
It contains more than 380,000 objects and displays 35,000 works of art in eight curatorial departments with more than 60,600 square metres (652,000 sq ft) dedicated to the permanent collection. It exhibits sculptures, objets d’art, paintings, drawings, and archaeological finds. At any given point in time, approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are being exhibited. With over 7.8 million visitors in 2022, the Louvre is the world’s most-visited museum.
Some important works located in this museum are:
- Virgin of the Rocks, c. 1483–1493
- La Belle Ferronnière, c. 1490–149
- Portrait of Isabella d’Este, 1499-1500
- The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, c. 1501–1519
- Mona Lisa, c. 1503-19
- Saint John the Baptist, c. 1507–1516
Uffizi, Florence
The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best-known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.
After the ruling House of Medici died out, their art collections were given to the city of Florence under the famous Patto di Famiglia negotiated by Anna Maria Luisa, the last Medici heiress. The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, and in 1769 it was officially opened to the public, formally becoming a museum in 1865.
Some important works located in this museum are:
- The Annunciation, c. 1472–1476
- The Baptism of Christ, c. 1474–1478
- The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1478–1482
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
The State Hermitage Museum is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great acquired a collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky and has been open to the public since 1852. The Art Newspaper ranked the museum 10th in their list of the most visited art museums, with 2,812,913 visitors in 2022.
Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprise over three million items (the numismatic collection accounts for about one-third of them). Of the six buildings in the main museum complex, five—namely the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage, and Hermitage Theatre—are all open to the public.
Some important works located in this museum are:
- Benois Madonna, c. 1478–1481
- Madonna Litta, c. 1481–1495
National Gallery, London
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in Central London, England. It was founded in 1824 and houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900.
It’s the third most popular museum in the UK and attracted 6,011,007 visitors in 2019.
The museum’s copy of Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers was attacked on 14 October 2022 by environmental activists from the Just Stop Oil campaign, who threw tomato soup at it while it was on display. Due to the protection of the plexiglass, the painting was not harmed, but it suffered some minor damage to the frame, according to a spokesperson for the museum.
Some important works located in this museum are:
- Virgin of the Rocks, c. 1491–1508
- The Virgin and Child (with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist), c. 1499–1508
Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan
Santa Maria delle Grazie (“Holy Mary of Grace”) is a church and Dominican convent in Milan, northern Italy, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The convent contains the mural of The Last Supper in the refectory, which is probably one of the most popular murals in the World.
- The Last Supper, c. 1492–1498
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
The Alte Pinakothek is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pinakothek refers to the time period covered by the collection—from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century.
The Neue Pinakothek, re-built in 1981, covers nineteenth-century art, and Pinakothek der Moderne, opened in 2002, exhibits modern art. All three galleries are part of the Bavarian State Painting Collections, an organization of the Free State of Bavaria.
It hosts the following paintings.
- Madonna of the Carnation, c. 1472–1478
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in 1937 for the American people by a joint resolution by Congress.
The Gallery’s collection of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculptures, medals, and decorative arts traces the development of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present. It is of the top three art museums in the United States by annual visitors, it is the only one that has no admission fee.
It hosts the following paintings.
- Ginevra de’ Benci, c. 1474–1480
Vatican Museums
The Vatican Museums are the public museums of Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of the most well-known Roman sculptures and most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world.
The museums contain roughly 70,000 works, of which 20,000 are on display, and currently employ 640 people who work in 40 different administrative, scholarly, and restoration departments.
It hosts the following paintings.
- Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, c. 1480–1490
More of his paintings around the World
- Czartoryski Museum, Kraków
- Lady with an Ermine, c. 1489–1491
- Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan
- Portrait of a Musician, c. 1483–1487
- Castello Sforzesco, Milan
- Sala delle Asse, c. 1497–1499
- Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
- Madonna of the Yarnwinder, c. 1499–1508
- Acquired by Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism for the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
- Salvator Mundi, c. 1499–1510
- Galleria Nazionale, Parma
- La Scapigliata, c. 1506–1508 (unfinished)
- Private collection, New York City
- Madonna of the Yarnwinder, c. 1501–1508
Best Books about Leonardo da Vinci
Some of the best books available are the following: