Mona Lisa
The portrait that became an icon — and the questions behind the image.
Leonardo da Vinci
The artist behind the myth.
An independent editorial resource about Leonardo da Vinci — his paintings, drawings, ideas, methods, workshop and enduring legacy.
Meet Leonardo
Featured artwork image
Featured work
The Madonna of the Yarnwinder
A painting associated with Leonardo da Vinci and his studio, with a history of attribution, ownership, theft and recovery that is nearly as compelling as the work itself.
Explore the paintingThe works
Leonardo, beyond the Yarnwinder.
Leonardo's surviving paintings are few, but each opens onto a larger world of observation, technique, workshop practice and Renaissance culture.
The Last Supper
Gesture, narrative, space and the fragile survival of Leonardo's mural.
Virgin of the Rocks
A mysterious composition that exists in two major versions.
Lady with an Ermine
Portraiture, movement and symbolism in one of Leonardo's most celebrated works.
Virgin and Child with Saint Anne
Intertwined figures, family relationships and Leonardo's experiments in composition.
Madonna of the Yarnwinder
The featured work — examined through evidence, attribution and history.
Leonardo
Then, go deeper.
Leonardo's paintings make more sense when placed alongside the notebooks, drawings, workshop practices and ideas that shaped them.
Biography
The life, places and career of Leonardo da Vinci.
Workshop
How Renaissance workshops worked and why attribution can be complicated.
Painting & technique
Sfumato, observation, composition and Leonardo's approach to painting.
Drawings & notebooks
An extraordinary record of questions, experiments and observation.
Ideas & science
An artist whose interests crossed anatomy, engineering, geometry and nature.
Legacy
Why Leonardo continues to shape the way we think about art and genius.
Editorial approach
Evidence before mythology.
Leonardo attracts stories as readily as facts. Where attribution, dating, workshop participation or interpretation is debated, we distinguish established evidence from scholarly disagreement rather than presenting uncertainty as certainty.