According to Taylor, the London painting is stylistically the earlier of the two, being more meticulous, in keeping with the product of Leonardo's Florentine training, while the Louvre painting has more in common with the Last Supper and the Virgin and Child with St Anne, including the delicate use of sfumato.

Among the qualities that make Leonardo's work unique are the innovative techniques that he used in laying on the paint, his detailed knowledge of anatomy, light, botany and geology, his interest in physiognomy and the way in which humans register emotion in expression and gesture, his innovative use of the human form in figurative composition, and his use of the subtle gradation of tone.

It was left incomplete at the time of Melzi's death more than fifty years later, with only a small amount of the material on anatomy included in Leonardo's Treatise on painting, published in France in 1632.

According to Leonardo's preview in the accompanying text, written in mirror writing, it was made as a study of the proportions of the ( male ) human body as described in Vitruvius.

Leonardo's drawing combines a careful reading of the ancient text with his own observation of actual human bodies.

This work in particular shows Leonardo's expertise in painting the human form.

According to Leonardo's notes in the accompanying text, written in mirror writing, it was made as a study of the proportions of the ( male ) human body as described in a treatise by the Ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, who wrote that in the human body:

He had Leonardo's lofty human compassion, humility, patience, and profound serenity of spirit.

Nevertheless, Leonardo treated him with great indulgence, and he remained in Leonardo's household for the next thirty years.

He travelled to France with Leonardo and remained with him until Leonardo's death.

Leonardo's early works begin with the Baptism of Christ painted in conjunction with Verrocchio.

Bortolon associates this picture with a difficult period of Leonardo's life, as evidenced in his diary: " I thought I was learning to live ; I was only learning to die.

The 19th century brought a particular admiration for Leonardo's genius, causing Henry Fuseli to write in 1801: " Such was the dawn of modern art, when Leonardo da Vinci broke forth with a splendour that distanced former excellence: made up of all the elements that constitute the essence of genius ..." This is echoed by A. E. Rio who wrote in 1861: " He towered above all other artists through the strength and the nobility of his talents.

In response to warping and swelling experienced during its storage during World War II, and to prepare the picture for an exhibit to honor the anniversary of Leonardo's 500th birthday, the Mona Lisa was fitted in 1951 with a flexible oak frame with beech crosspieces.

Among his 300 paintings by moderns, most notably, he owned Leonardo's Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, The Family of the Virgin by Andrea del Sarto, the two famous Bacchanales of Nicolas Poussin, as well as paintings by Veronese and Titian, and Diana at the Bath by Rubens, for which he was so glad to pay the artist's heirs 3, 000 écus, that he made a gift to Rubens ' widow of a diamond-encrusted watch.

The High Renaissance period is traditionally taken to begin in the 1490s, with Leonardo's fresco of the Last Supper in Milan and the death of Lorenzo de ' Medici in Florence, and to have ended in 1527 with the sacking of Rome by the troops of Charles V. This term was first used in German ( Hochrenaissance ) in the early nineteenth century, and has its origins in the " High Style " of painting and sculpture described by Johann Joachim Winckelmann.

Despite this, Raphael usually served as a contrast to Leonardo's gung-ho do-gooder persona with his pessimistic sarcastic remarks.

His relatively small role was probably due to the need to establish Leonardo's role as " leader " along with the fact that Donatello was Peter Laird's favorite Turtle, and Raphael was Kevin Eastman's favorite.

He picked up the guitar after a 35-year hiatus and is currently a professional jazz guitarist and now performs Monday and Thursday nights with various ensembles at Leonardo's 706, a Gainesville restaurant.

This tactic, quite unusual on Italian football, and greatly focusing on creative players such as Ronaldinho, Andrea Pirlo and Clarence Seedorf, led Milan to improved results at both Serie A and UEFA Champions League level, including a remarkable 3 – 2 win at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium against Real Madrid and a 3 – 0 away win to Juventus which enabled Leonardo's side to finish in second place at the half-way point of the season, six points shy of leaders Inter with a game in hand.

* Leonardo's Last Supper ( 1969 ) portrayed Leonardo da Vinci being prematurely declared dead, with his subsequent " resurrection " in a filthy charnel-house.

The Louvre website and various authors suggest that the entire painting is by Ambrogio de ' Predis, painted under Leonardo's supervision between 1485-1508, or perhaps largely the work of de Predis, with minor intervention by Leonardo.

Jana 19 ), world-famous for Leonardo's painting of Lady with an Ermine.

Salai executed a number of paintings under the name of Andrea Salai, but although Vasari claims that Leonardo " taught him a great deal about painting ", his work is generally considered to be of less artistic merit than others among Leonardo's pupils, such as Marco d ' Oggione and Boltraffio.

In 1999 the horse alone was cast from Leonardo's original designs in bronze and placed in Milan outside the racetrack of Ippodromo del Galoppo.

Although the sitter has traditionally been identified as Lisa del Giocondo, a lack of definitive evidence has long fueled alternative theories, including Leonardo's mother Caterina in a distant memory and the possibility that Leonardo used his own likeness.

Leonardo's personality is pointed out also in the beautiful drapery of the Virgin and the Angel, while the marble table in front of her probably quotes the tomb of Piero and Giovanni dei Medici in the church of San Lorenzo sculpted by Verrocchio in this period.

While Leonardo's experimentation followed clear scientific methods, a recent and exhaustive analysis of Leonardo as scientist by Frtijof Capra argues that Leonardo was a fundamentally different kind of scientist from Galileo, Newton and other scientists who followed him in that, as a Renaissance Man, his theorising and hypothesising integrated the arts and particularly painting.

It had been written by Leonardo's contemporary Agostino Vespucci and likened Leonardo to Apelles, who is mentioned in the text.

Peruggia was an Italian patriot who believed Leonardo's painting should be returned to Italy for display in an Italian museum.

The drawing was purchased from Gaudenzio de ' Pagave by Giuseppe Bossi, who described, discussed and illustrated it in his monograph on Leonardo's The Last Supper, Del Cenacolo di Leonardo da Vinci libri quattro ( 1810 ).

Leonardo, who is now married, returns to his home after work, where his Mother-In-Law and Wife have been singing a lullaby to Leonardo's son.

Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio was suggested by Herbert Cook, who retracted his opinion, seeing Leonardo's own hand, in 1904.

The sitter has been identified with reasonable security as Cecilia Gallerani, who was the mistress of Leonardo's employer, Lodovico Sforza, known as Lodovico il Moro.

In 1810 he published a special work in large quarto, entitled Del Cenacolo di Leonardo da Vinci, which had the merit of greatly interesting Goethe, who shared Bossi's urgent dream of saving Leonardo's fresco.

The King is shown supporting Leonardo's head as he dies, as described by Vasari, watched by the Dauphin who is comforted by a cardinal.

Leonardo's work is highly symbolical as it represents the Renaissance focus on man as the measure of all things, and has simultaneously a round shape that fits the coin perfectly.

Whether Vasari is correct in saying he learned it from Leonardo's works is unclear — he is always keen to ascribe all advances to Florentine sources.

Leonardo's is all classical repose.

Of Leonardo's 30 scientific journals, the Codex may be the most famous of all.

Melzi wrote to Leonardo's brothers to notify them of his death, and in this letter he described Leonardo's love for his pupils as " sviscerato e ardentissimo amore " a selfless and incandescent love.

The library of the Abbey, which contains some 50, 000 volumes, has a paper conservation Laboratorio di Restauro, which was entrusted with the conservation of Leonardo's Codex Atlanticus from the Biblioteca Ambrosiana ; the library houses writings of St. Nilus and his pupils and a rare copy of Alvise Cadamosto's collected travel accounts, printed in the early sixteenth century.

Leonardo's pupils and followers copied or closely imitated many of his pictures.