Leonardo da Vinci: 7 works

'Probably inspired by the prophecy of Isaiah, this work was commissioned in 1481 by the brothers of Saint Augustine of San Donato a Scopeto, but Leonardo interrupted work on it to leave for Milan in 1482.'

'This is one of a number of sheets of drawings by Leonardo in which he designed instruments of war. He drew them while working for Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan (1494--99).'

'According to artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari, Leonardo da Vinci was "so delighted when he saw curious heads, whether bearded or hairy, that he would follow anyone who had thus attracted his attention for a whole day, acquiring such a clear idea of him that when he went home he would draw the head as well as if the man had been present." Leonardo depicted the man's hair with his characteristic sfumato.'

'Leonardo worked on two compositions of the subject, finally executing a painting that was destroyed in the 18th century. In the four surviving studies of Leda's head, Leonardo expended little effort on her expression, simply adopting the usual downward glance; in the central two drawings he may even have left the face blank, for the faces there are of poor quality and may have been 'filled in' by a pupil.'

'Out of the complete composition Leonardo only painted the crucial episode of the battle, the Fight for the Standard, the moment when the young Florentine captain-general, Pier Giampaolo Orsini, is just about to wrench the standard from the hand of Niccolo Piccinino, the Milanese condottiere. Leonardo created the Budapest sheet as a preliminary study for the full-scale cartoon, and the head in half profile was executed for the Milanese condottiere.'

'Leonardo was commissioned to decorate one of the two longer walls of the hall around the middle of 1503. His composition commemorated the decisive military victory in the history of the Florentine Republic, the triumph over the Milanese at Anghiari in 1440.'