Leonardo da Vinci

The Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna openend to the public in 1891. Hans Makart (1840–84) had originally been commissioned to execute the painting for the ceiling as well as fanlight, spandrel, and intercolumnar areas as part of the interior decorations in the main staircase of the new built museum. The contract was signed in February 1881; in the same year an imperial delegation was able to view the artist’s initial sketches. Shortly before his death, Makart had completed the fanlight paintings depicting “classical heroes of painting” and their “favourite materials”. Melancholic and visibly exhausted, the model lies before the artist. The model has but a distant relation to Leonardo’s work and for compositional reasons echoes the portrayal of Titian. The depiction of Leonardo relies on his Turin self-portrait (drawing in sanguine, c. 1512; Turin, Biblioteca Reale). For further Information on the building see: Cäcilia Bischoff, The Kunsthistorisches Museum. History, Architecture, Decoration, Vienna 2010