Art is a journey into the most unknown thing of all - oneself. Nobody knows his own frontiers… I don’t think I’d ever want to take a road if I knew where it led.

Louis Kahan
The Virgin of the Rocks about 1491 - 1508, Leonardo da Vinci

http://nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/leonardo-da-vinci-the-virgin-of-the-rocks

National Gallery puts old master back on display after 18-month conservation project

“The conservation work has convinced the gallery’s experts that their painting, a later version of one in the Louvre in Paris, is entirely by Leonardo, one of the greatest geniuses of the Italian Renaissance – and not, as previously thought, partly by his small factory of assistants. The study of the painting has also established that it was never fully finished…”

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/jul/14/leonardo-da-vinci-virgin-restored?intcmp=239)

Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci Study of a Woman’s Head
Leonardo da Vinci  Last Supper, detail of the face of John
Leonardo da Vinci St. John the Baptist . Heartbreaking resemblance to the portrait of a woman’s face  (The Portrait of a lady from Leonardo da Vinci)
lushlight: liquidnight: Leonardo da Vinci - Study for the Head of Leda, circa 1505-1507
Dessin de Léonard de Vinci, Tête de Vierge, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
book-aesthete: Da Vinci on the Science of Painting Vinci, Leonardo da. Traitté de la peinture de Leonardo de Vinci donné au public et traduit d’Italien en François. Paris: Jacques Langlois, 1651. Folio (41 cm, 16.1”). Add. engr. t.-p., [18], 128 pp.; illus. Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of the Stanley family: eagle and child with the motto “Sans changer” (probably belonging to Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby). First French edition of the great Trattato della Pittura, published in the same year as Langlois’s first Italian edition and very possibly having preceded that edition. The work was translated by Roland Fréart, sieur de Chambray, and is here illustrated withan added engraved title-page, a title-page vignette, two head-pieces, and 56 in-text copper engravings drawn by Charles Errard after Nicolas Poussin and engraved by René Lochon. Compiled from da Vinci’s manuscripts after his death by his pupil Francesco Melzi, this text served as Renaissance-era Europe’s primary introduction to da Vinci’s theories and principles. via prbm
Design for the Mona Lisa made about 1499 and attributed to Leonardo da Vinci”, “Dimensions of canvas 25.50 by 20.50 inches”, “In the collection of Giuseppe Vallardi, Florence”A charcoal and graphite study of the Mona Lisa attributed to Leonardo is in the Hyde Collection, in Glens Falls, NY. Attributed to Leonardo da Vinci , Italian (1452-1519), Study of the Mona Lisa, c. 1503, charcoal and graphite, 24 1/8 x 20 1/8 in., The Hyde Collection, 1971.71 Date thought to be c. 1499, more likely c. 1503 Source http://www.hydecollection.org/collections/details-image.cfm?ID=43 from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leonardo_design_attributed.jpg “Although nearly identical in size and the positioning of the subject, Study of the Mona Lisa is no longer considered a full-scale drawing, or cartoon, of the Louvre’s famous portrait Mona Lisa (c. 1503-06).  First, the paper is not incised or pricked, which would indicate that the image was transferred to the panel.  Second, the drawing has been extensively retouched and reworked.  This combined with grime build up, smudging, and losses caused by mechanical abrasion to the surface mask the sixteenth century drawing that lies beneath. An attribution in favor of Leonardo is supported by the paper, which dates to the sixteenth century and consists of three smaller sheets of paper glued together.  The pieced paper indicates that it was probably taken from a bound volume and Leonardo did execute other preliminary drawings on pieced paper surfaces. Moreover, the provenance, or history of the ownership of the work, parallels that of an authentic Leonardo cartoon titled Portrait of Isabella d’Este, but questions remain because of the extensive reworking to the figure in the Hyde drawing. The Hyde drawing was once offered to the Louvre along with the cartoon of Isabella d’Este, but the Louvre declined the Mona Lisa due to its poor condition and extensive overdrawing and restoration. In 1951, Mrs. Charlotte Hyde purchased the drawing from the distinguished scholar and dealer R. Langton Douglas.  Although the work has been “decoded” for modern audiences, whether the original drawing is indeed by Leonardo’s hand will remain, like the portrait, a mystery. “(http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Leonardo_da_Vinci-other-Mona_Lisa-at-Hyde_Collection.html)
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)A Deluge, with a Falling Mountain and Collapsing Town (c. 1515), Black chalk, Royal Library, Windsor, (12378) “A series of eleven drawings by Leonardo of a mighty deluge are among the most enigmatic and visionary works of the Renaissance. Modest in size and densely worked, each shows a landscape overwhelmed by a vast tempest. Here the storm breaks over a city, destroying a mountain and sending great blocks of stone cascading down onto the buildings. The drawings were probably made for his own satisfaction rather than as studies for any project.” More: http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/microsites/leonardodrawings/object.asp?row=11&item=12 *** Under the heading ‘The Deluge and its demonstration in painting’, Leonardo da Vinci composed an extended description of considerable power. It begins: “Let the dark and gloomy air be shown battered by the rush of contrary and convoluted winds, mixed with the weight of the incessant rain and bearing hither and thither numberless branches rent from trees and mingled with numberless leaves … The ruins of mountains may be seen, already scoured by the racing of the rivers, collapsing above these rivers and blocking the valleys; the pent up rivers burst forth and inundate many lands and their inhabitants …Let the biggest of [the waves] strike and demolish the cities and country residences of that valley. And let the disintegration of the high buildings of the said cities raise much dust which will rise up like smoke or wreathed clouds through the descending rain ….”(W.12665v). Via http://idlespeculations-terryprest.blogspot.com/2010/01/deluge.html
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