Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci's paintings unite closely observed human expressions with careful studies of light, anatomy, and landscape. Working in Renaissance Italy, he used subtle transitions of tone to give faces and bodies volume, an approach associated with sfumato. The Last Supper organizes the apostles' responses around Christ through gesture, expression, and the perspective of an enclosed room. Painted for the dining hall of the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, it placed a sacred meal within the friars' daily setting of eating, prayer, and meditation. Leonardo applied its pigments over a dry preparatory surface, a technique different from painting into wet plaster. The Mona Lisa brings similarly patient attention to the relationship between a face and its landscape setting. Preparatory drawings reveal the study of individual forms and the adjustment of compositions behind his paintings.