How to Identify a Leonardo DaVinci Painting

For centuries, people have been fascinated with the work of Leonardo DaVinci (b.1452 - d.1519), an artist, engineer and architect. One of the most famous painters of the Italian Renaissance, DaVinci actually completed relatively few paintings. Two of his works, though, are perhaps the best known paintings of all time - the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Here are some tips for identifying a Leonardo DaVinci painting.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Look for more lifelike figures than in earlier painters' works. Leonardo captured life around him, constantly sketching and scribbling in a journal. He was one of the first painters to show more lifelike human and animal subjects in his paintings, depicting more movement and not just stiff, posed portraits.

2. Notice individual layers of paint that are thin, not thick strokes of already blended colors. Leonardo didn't mix his colors on a palette but rather layered them thinly on the canvas to develop color blends, rich textures and an almost three-dimensional effect. This ability to create more 3-D artwork was enhanced by DaVinci's study and sketching of the human form.

3. Detect the use of a painting tool other than just a paintbrush. While many artists' works are full of nothing but discernible brushstrokes, DaVinci often used a combination of paint brushes and his own thumb to get the effects he wanted on his canvas. The lefthanded painter referred to his painting technique as light and shade blending "without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke." For this reason, his style is called "sfumato" from the Italian word for "smoke."

4. Compare Leonardo's use of oil paints to other artists of his time who mostly used egg tempera. In fact, he was one of the first of his era to use oil paints as he enjoyed the freedom to rework a painting-in-progress.

Tips & Warnings

• Aside from creating art, DaVinci was also a prolific designer of flying machines, an innovative inventor and self-taught student of anatomy. His detailed journals and sketches of the human form provided some of the earlier records of the human internal organs.