Leonardo's Words

A good painter has two chief objects to paint — man and the intention of his soul. The former is easy, the latter hard, for it must be expressed by gestures and the movements of the limbs. — Leonardo da Vinci, Treatise on Painting
That figure is most praiseworthy which by its action best expresses the passion that animates it. — Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks
The painter who has no doubts will achieve little. When the work exceeds the judgment of the worker, then such a worker achieves little; when the judgment exceeds the work, the work never ceases to improve. — Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks

Key Concepts

  • Moti dell'animo: "Motions of the soul" — Leonardo's term for the internal emotional states that must be externalized through gesture, posture, and facial expression.
  • Psychological Depth: Going beyond surface description to reveal the inner life of a subject through ambiguity, gaze, and compositional relationships.
  • Variety in Figures: Leonardo insisted that no two figures in a composition should share the same pose, gesture, or emotional temperature.
  • Dignity with Emotion: The balance between dramatic narrative force and the classical restraint that prevents figures from becoming caricatures.

Works Analyzed

The Last Supper

1495–1498 · Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan

The supreme demonstration of moti dell'animo — thirteen distinct emotional reactions to the words "One of you will betray me," each expressed through unique gesture, posture, and grouping.

Mona Lisa

c. 1503–1519 · Musée du Louvre, Paris

Psychological portraiture at its peak — the ambiguity of the smile, the direct engagement of the gaze, and the dissolving landscape create a subject that seems to shift with the viewer's own emotional state.

Virgin of the Rocks (Paris)

c. 1483–1486 · Musée du Louvre, Paris

Narrative through gesture alone — the Virgin's protective hand, the angel's pointing finger, and the infant John's prayer create a complex theological narrative without text.

Adoration of the Magi

c. 1481 · Uffizi Gallery, Florence

The unfinished composition reveals Leonardo's process — figures are arranged by emotional temperature, with the central Madonna as the calm axis around which excitement spirals.

Lady with an Ermine

c. 1489–90 · Czartoryski Museum, Kraków

Cecilia Gallerani turns as if interrupted — the ermine as symbolic device, the three-quarter rotation creating a psychological "moment" that portraiture had never captured before.

Battle of Anghiari

c. 1504–1505 · Lost (copies survive)

Leonardo's concept of the "bestial madness" of war — intertwined bodies of men and horses expressing rage, terror, and the dissolution of human reason in violence.

Saint John the Baptist

c. 1513–1516 · Musée du Louvre, Paris

The ambiguous smile and androgynous beauty push portraiture toward pure symbolism — the subject exists more as idea than person, dissolving the boundary between portrait and icon.

Open Questions

  1. Did Leonardo develop a systematic "grammar" of gestures, or did each composition evolve organically?
  2. How much of the emotional ambiguity in the Mona Lisa is intentional vs. the result of centuries of varnish degradation?
  3. Was the Last Supper's dramatic staging influenced by theatrical performances Leonardo witnessed at the Sforza court?
  4. Why did Leonardo return repeatedly to the androgynous figure type in his late work?
  5. To what extent did Leonardo's scientific understanding of facial musculature directly inform his painted expressions?