Leonardo: The Works

The Annunciation that Leonardo made very early in his career

can be seen as the culmination of his apprenticeship

in Verrocchio's workshop.

We have continued to study and make new investigations.

Not only looking at the finished painting

but also understanding all the stages

Leonardo went through to arrive at the final composition.

Looking at the changes he made

he clearly did not arrive immediately

at a complete and definitive conclusion.

There is undoubtedly on Leonardo's part

a kind of internal challenge.

So this is not so much a problem of wanting

immediately to prove himself as an innovative artist

but really the need to challenge himself

and therefore to progress.

One has the sense he's never satisfied by whatever he's doing.

Therefore it's more a dialogue of Leonardo with himself

than with the rest of artistic society.

The Adoration of the Kings by Leonardo da Vinci

leaves us increasingly surprised the more we look at it

and especially after the recent restoration

which was done by us here at the Opificio

we can much better understand this work

even in its unfinished state.

Here he assembles more than 70 figures

all drawn by hand.

There is clearly an impetus on Leonardo's part

to try to create a composition

that he knows he probably can't complete.

We don't know how many of these sketched figures

would have been in the final work

but there is clearly not the space for all of them.

The restoration of the Adoration of the Kings lasted five years.

The biggest surprise was that

underneath all these varnishes

which had deposited one after the other on the surface

a level of transparency was recovered

that revealed the space.

What had seemed to be exclusively

a painting entirely on a single plane

thus a two-dimensional painting

suddenly recovered this sense of genuine space.

Leonardo was commissioned to paint the Adoration of the Kings

by the monks of San Donato in Scopeto.

Leonardo worked for them for only a relatively short time.

We have documents that tell us

it was a few months, at most a year.

The painting remained unfinished

because Leonardo headed for Milan leaving behind the city of Florence.

In Milan Leonardo could find a way to establish himself more

perhaps more easily than he could in Florence

where there was more competition.

Leonardo da Vinci painted The Virgin of the Rocks

at some point after 1483.

He painted it for the Brotherhood of the Immaculate Conception

for a chapel in the church of San Francesco Grande in Milan.

In this picture Leonardo shows the Virgin Mary

taking St. John the Baptist under her protection

while he kneels in adoration of the Infant Jesus

who is centred at the bottom of the composition.

The Infant Jesus is under the protection of an angel.

Leonardo chose a background composed of rocks

which most definitely has a symbolic meaning.

The rocks create a sort of grotto, a place of refuge

imbued with symbolism

that seeks to reveal the purity

and chastity of the Virgin Mary.

This is truly a place protected from original sin

which therefore echoes the idea of the immaculate conception.

In The Virgin of the Rocks

we can see the great attention that Leonardo pays

to everything concerning the natural world.

The rocks, flowers, plants

that are scattered throughout this composition.

So it reflects in part Leonardo's world

but this precise representation of nature

is actually an image of the incarnation of God.

God is made man in this painting.

You see Jesus who is placed on the Earth

and Leonardo is seeking to represent this mystery of the incarnation

in the broader sense of nature,

a history that begins with God's creation.

He's showing us a humanity that is revitalised and renewed

by the arrival of Christ on Earth.

Something that's absolutely wonderful in this painting

is the use of light and shade.

The lighting is really very dark

since we have no natural sunlight

so the lighting is very delicate, very mysterious

which brings this mystery of the incarnation to life.

Leonardo also pays great attention

to the transformation of colour under the effects of light.

The Virgin of the Rocks is without doubt

the first masterpiece by Leonardo

in which one can admire

the extremely sophisticated, extremely fine way

in which this colour is rendered

particularly the reds and the shadows

which transform the painting into a tonal vision.

This is undeniable.

We don't really know why this painting was created.

Most likely it was a commission from Leonardo's patron

Duke Ludovico Sforza, requesting a portrait of his mistress.

In this painting we see a beautiful woman

who is in love and committed to Ludovico Sforza.

We know she was a well-educated person

who wrote poetry

while at the same time she was lauded

and considered a muse by other artists.

I think that her extraordinary attributes and unique qualities

led to her achieving an exceptional position in Ludovico's court.

Leonardo's painting is remarkable

in the way that it deals

with a subject in motion.

Cecilia Gallerani is turning towards someone

who is outside the painting's frame.

We are dealing with a snapshot,

a portrait which shows one specific moment.

The painting is exceptional due to its intimacy.

It is exceptional thanks to the technique used

but it also carries an enormous emotional charge.

Thinking about its history

but also about the story of Cecilia Gallerani

we can contemplate pure beauty.

La Belle Ferronni?re is a painting

about which we know relatively few historical details.

Nevertheless there is enough evidence

to help us understand where and when

Leonardo painted this lovely portrait.

The young woman in the painting

is dressed in clothing that was the height of fashion

in Milan towards the end of the 1480s and 1490s.

We can therefore be absolutely certain

that Leonardo painted this portrait

when he was living under the patronage of Ludovico Sforza.

One of the most appealing theories for La Belle Ferronni?re

is that it may be a portrait of Lucrezia Crivelli,

Ludovico Sforza's final mistress.

Her gaze may at first seem to be looking at us

but it isn't directed at the viewer, it slightly eludes us

and is turned to her left.

So you have the impression of a body in movement.

Ultimately this extremely seductive woman is slipping away from us.

She doesn't look at us and is turned away.

Much has been imagined and written about this gaze which escapes us.