Does Mona Lisa Have a Hidden Personality?
The Mona Lisa is the most famous portrait in the world – Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece. A French scientist has spent more than 10 years analysing the painting. Now with his latest research he claims he has found another portrait of a different woman underneath – claims which are prompting controversy in the art world. […]
Drawing the Italian Renaissance: How artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo & Raphael worked
During the Italian Renaissance, generally held to be the period 1400 – 1600, drawing became a much more important part of an artist’s creative process. With paper becoming cheaper as a result of the book printing revolution in the 1500s, an artist could use it wastefully in a more experimental manner. Find out more about […]
The Hidden Meanings in a 16th-Century Female Nude
How a rarely-seen drawing of the Three Graces by Raphael reveals the era’s ideas about nudity, modesty, shame – and the artist’s genius. It’s part of an exhibition, Drawing the Italian Renaissance – at The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace – of drawings from 1450 to 1600, the biggest of its kind ever shown in the […]
Secrets within Masters’ Paintings
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli and Caravaggio were each brilliant artists, but each also included unexpected features in some of their works. These secret messages and subtleties within their masterpieces went unrecognized for centuries, making the works of art even more astounding than what meets the eye. A prime example is a scientific secret hiding […]
Mona Lisa, The World’s Most Famous Painting (video)
Arguably the most famous painting the modern world has ever known, yet it’s not how it’s always been. Let alone the possible price of the painting itself, its valued so much that the room in the Louvre that houses and protects this painting cost over $7.5 million. The Mona Lisa is a portrait of […]
Leonardo da Vinci (5/5): Retreat of the Italian genius in France under the patronage of Francis I
Neither the loss of an eye nor the paralysis of his right hand could stop Leonardo da Vinci from continuing to work during his last years. He died at the Château Clos-Lucé in France, where he lived a peaceful retirement, protected by his patron, the French King Francis I. Leonardo da Vinci accompanied Pope Leo […]
Leonardo da Vinci (3/5): Origins of “The Last Supper” and Architectural Works (video)
At the age of 45, Leonardo has reached his artistic maturity, but he still has a dream: to create a great pictorial work. Due to the outbreak of a plague in Milan, Leonardo draws sketches of an organic city, inspired by blood circulation and organized in channels and streets at different levels so as to […]