Division: Art

Category: Great Art Masterpieces

Set: Great Art Masterpieces of Leonardo da Vinci
Bit of Intelligence: Portrait of a Musician
1st Magnitude: Portrait of a Musician was likely painted by Leonardo da
Vinci although that attribution is debated.
2nd Magnitude: Portrait of a Musician was painted in Milan.
3rd Magnitude: Portrait of a Musician is oil on panel.
4th Magnitude: The subject Portrait of a Musician is unknown. Potential
subjects include two important court musicians in Milan during that period:
Franchino Gaffurio and Josquin des Prs.
5th Magnitude: Portrait of a Musician shows a musician holding a sheet of
music. It was not until 1904 that the hand and sheet of music were
discovered underneath overpaintings.
6th Magnitude: Portrait of a Musician was completed in 1490.
7th Magnitude: The Portrait of a Musician is traditional in style.
8th Magnitude: If the picture is Leonardo's work, this is the only portrait of
a man executed by Leonardo.
9th Magnitude: Today Portrait of a Musician is located in Pinacoteca
Ambrosiana in Milan.
10th Magnitude: Leonardo da Vinci is notorious for leaving his works
unfinished.

Division: Art
Category: Great Art Masterpieces
Set: Great Art Masterpieces of Leonardo da Vinci
Bit of Intelligence: Madonna and Child with St Anne and the Young St John
1st Magnitude: Madonna and Child with St Anne and the Young St John
was created by Leonardo da Vinci.
2nd Magnitude: Madonna and Child with St Anne and the Young St John
was likely created in Florence.
3rd Magnitude: Madonna and Child with St Anne and the Young St John is a
cartoon.
4th Magnitude: The subjects of Madonna and Child with St Anne and the
Young St John are Mary, Jesus, Mary's mother (St Anne) and St John.
5th Magnitude: Madonna and Child with St Anne and the Young St John
consists is similar to Virgin of the Rocks however the open triangle is
reduced into a pyramid of interlocking forms, the figures increase in scale
and the rocky landscape recedes into the distance. Jesus leans towards St
John to bless him. Saint Anne's forearm, barely sketched in, is prophetically
raised to Heaven.
6th Magnitude: Madonna and Child with St Anne and the Young St John
was created from 1804 to 1805.
7th Magnitude: Madonna and Child with St Anne and the Young St John was
sketched on 8 sheets of paper with chalk and charcoal.
8th Magnitude: In 1986, a vandal shot at Madonna and Child with St Anne
and the Young St John and severely damaged it around the area of Mary's
chest. While repairing the cartoon restorers could discover no sign on it
that it was used either by Leonardo or any other artist for transferring the
design to another medium.
9th Magnitude: Today Madonna and Child with St Anne and the Young St
John is located in the National Gallery in London.
10th Magnitude: In 1507 Leonardo da Vinci was named court painter to
King Louis XII of France, who was then residing in Milan.

Division: Art
Category: Great Art Masterpieces
Set: Great Art Masterpieces of Leonardo da Vinci
Bit of Intelligence: The Virgin and Child with St Anne
1st Magnitude: The Virgin and Child with St Anne was painted by Leonardo
da Vinci.
2nd Magnitude: The Virgin and Child with St Anne was commissioned by
the Servites in Florence and was likely painted in Milan or Florence
3rd Magnitude: The Virgin and Child with St Anne is oil on wood.
4th Magnitude: The subjects of The Virgin and Child with St Anne are Mary,
her mother St Anne and Jesus.
5th Magnitude: Mary's gaze is melancholy, and it appears as though she
wants to pull her child away from the lamb, the symbol of his future
suffering. St Anne is watching the events benevolently. The pyramidal
composition is dynamic, yet harmoniously balanced. The sense of depth
created by the mountainous landscape gives the painting a perceptible
peacefulness.
6th Magnitude: The Virgin and Child with St Anne was completed in 1510.
7th Magnitude: The technique in The Virgin and St Anee is unusual in that
the paint is applied thinly, it is limpid and transparent, so that in some
places the underlying sketch is visible.
8th Magnitude: The theme of the Christ Child on the knee of the Virgin, who
is herself seated on St Anne's lap, is fairly rare, but examples of it can be
found from the Middle Ages onwards - the stream of life flowing through
three generations.
9th Magnitude: Today The Virgin and Child with St Anne is located in the
Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
10th Magnitude: Leonardo da Vinci has no children and was never known to
be romantically linked to any woman.

Division: Art
Category: Great Art Masterpieces
Set: Great Art Masterpieces of Leonardo da Vinci
Bit of Intelligence: St John in the Wilderness (Bacchus)
1st Magnitude: St John in the Wilderness is based on a drawing done by
Leonardo da Vinci however it was likely painted by Francesco Melzi in
Leonardo's workshop.
2nd Magnitude: St John in the Wilderness was painted in Milan.
3rd Magnitude: St John in the Wilderness is oil on panel transferred to
canvas.
4th Magnitude: The subject of St John in the Wilderness is St John the
Baptist.
5th Magnitude: St John in the Wilderness shows St John, crowned with a
laurel wreath, wearing a fur garment and carrying a staff, is with his left
hand pointing to a spring and holding a bunch of grapes. The fur and staff
can be interpreted as attributes of the Baptist, and the fruit and laurel
wreath as ones belonging to the classical god of wine.
6th Magnitude: St John in the Wilderness was done from 1510 to 1515.
7th Magnitude: St John in the Wilderness utilizes the technique of sfumato.
8th Magnitude: There is a text that equates St John with Bacchus: the
"Ovide moralise" by Pierre Bersuire, dating from the 14th century. A design
for the painting shows the naked St John, though without the attributes of
Bacchus.
9th Magnitude: Today, St John in the Wilderness is located in the Louvre
Museum in Paris, France.
10th Magnitude: Leonardo never completed his planned treatises on a
variety of scientific subjects and because his findings were spread among
many notebooks, mainly written in mirror script, the findings were not
disseminated until long after his death.

Division: Art
Category: Great Art Masterpieces
Set: Great Art Masterpieces of Leonardo Da Vinci
Bit of Intelligence: Annunciation
1st Magnitude: Annunciation was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci.
2nd Magnitude: Annunciation was created by Leonardo da Vinci when he
was still an apprentice in the workshop of his master, Andrea del
Verrocchio.
3rd Magnitude: Annunciation is painted with tempera on wood.
4th Magnitude: In Annunciation the archangel Gabriel is kneeling as a
dignified profile figure and raising his right hand in greeting to Mary,
indicating her divine pregnancy. The scene is set in the garden of a
Florentine palace, with a landscape of magic and an unreal atmosphere
created by mountains, water and sky.
5th Magnitude: The Virgin reacts to the Annunciation with an expression
of respect and by gesturing with her left hand while her other hand is
over the prie-dieu. Mary is in a 3/4 profile in the corner of the room with
all spatial coordinates converging on her with her body contrasting with
the cornerstones to enhance her importance.
6th Magnitude: Annunciation was painted in 1472-1475.
7th Magnitude: Annunciation is an Early Renaissance work.
8th Magnitude: Annunciation was originally ascribed to Domenico
Ghirlandaio until 1869, when some critics recognized it as a youthful work
by Leonardo.
9th Magnitude: Today Annunciation is in the Galleria degli Uffizi,
Florence.
10th Magnitude: About 1466 he was apprenticed as a garzone (studio
boy) to Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading Florentine painter and sculptor
of his day.