Mona Lisa, or La Gioconda (La Joconde), is a 16th century oil painting on poplar wood by Leonardo da Vinci and is one of the most famous paintings in Western art history. It is owned by the French government and hangs in the Musee du Louvre in Paris. The painting shows a woman looking out at the viewer with what is described as an "enigmatic smile". The Mona Lisa took Leonardo six years to complete.
The Last Supper (in Italian, Il Cenacolo or L'Ultima Cena) is a mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci for his patron Duke Lodovico Sforza. The Last Supper is a picture of Jesus's last meal with his disciples before he died. The painting is based on John 13:21, which Jesus announced that one of his 12 disciples would betray him. Leonardo worked on this painting from 1495 to 1498.
Virgin of the Rocks was the first painting executed by Leonardo after he arrived in Milan. It is known in two versions. The first, dating from 1485, hangs in the Louvre, Paris. The second, now in the National Gallery, London, was completed in 1506, probably with the help of an assistant.
The Battle of Anghiari was a battle fought on June 29, 1440, between Milan and the Italian League led by Republic of Florence in the course of the Italian Wars. In October 1503, Leonardo was commissioned to paint the mural of The Battle of Anghiari in the Council Hall in Florence. Leonardo’s painting depicted a dramatic and forceful battle between mounted cavalrymen.
Leonardo began to write his illustrated notebooks in Milan in the years between 1490 and 1495. His work covered four major themes: the science of painting, the particulars of architecture, the elements of the mechanics, and the workings of the human body. He included also writings on such other disciplines as botany, geology, hydrology, flight, etc. These studies and sketches were collected into various codices and manuscripts, which are now hungrily collected by museums and individuals (in 1994 Bill Gates bought the Codex Leicester ("Les-ter") for $30 million).
The Vitruvian Man is a famous drawing with accompanying notes by Leonardo da Vinci made around the year 1492 in one of his notebooks. It depicts a naked male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man. It is on display in the Gallerie dell' Accademia in Venice, Italy.