“Leonardo da Vinci”Leonardo di ser Piero da VinciApril 15, 1452 - May 02, 1519"Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper"

Leonardo da Vinci was concerned with the laws of science and

nature, which greatly informed his work as a

painter, sculptor, inventor and

draftsmen. His ideas and body of work --

which includes Virgin of the Rocks,The Last

Supper, Leda and the

Swan and Mona Lisa -- have influenced

countless artists and made

da Vinci a leading light of the Italian Renaissance.

Self-portrait in red chalk,

Royal Library of Turin Circa 1512 to 1515

At the age of 14, da Vinci began

apprenticing with the artist Verrocchio. For six years, he learned a

wide breadth of technical skills,

including metalworking, leather

arts, carpentry, drawing and sculpting.

By the age of 20, he had qualified as a master artist in the Guild of

Saint Luke and established his own

workshop.

Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda or La Joconde) is a sixteenth-century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel in Florence, Italy by Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci during the Renaissance. The work is currently owned by the Government of France and is on display at the Louvre museum in Paris under the title Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Arguably, it is the most famous and iconic paintingin the world.

This is a sixteenth-century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel

in Florence, Italy during the Renaissance.

The work is currently owned by the

Government of France and is on display at the Louvre museum in Paris

under the title:

“Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of

Francesco del Giocondo”

Mona LisaLa Gioconda or La

Joconde

Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda or La Joconde) is a sixteenth-century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel in Florence, Italy by Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci during the Renaissance. The work is currently owned by the Government of France and is on display at the Louvre museum in Paris under the title Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Arguably, it is the most famous and iconic paintingin the world.

The painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a woman

whose facial expression is

frequently described as enigmatic.

Others believe that the slight smile is an indication that the subject is hiding a

secret.

The Last Supper specifically portrays the reaction given by each

apostle when Jesus said one of them would betray him. All twelve apostles have different reactions to the news, with various degrees of

anger and shock.

Leonardo began work on The Last

Supper in 1495 and completed it in

1498—he did not work on the

painting continuously.

The beginning date is not certain, as

the archives of the convent for the

period have been destroyed and a document dated

1497 indicates that the painting was

nearly completed at that date.

A drawing created by 

da Vinci in Circa 1490. It is

accompanied by notes based on the

work of the architect Vitruvius.

The drawing, which is in pen and ink on

paper, depicts a male figure in two

superimposed positions with his

arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle

and square.

VITRUVIAN MAN Canon of

Proportions or, Proportions of

Man.

Siege Machine, c. 1480

View of a Skull, c. 1489

Study of Skeletons

Design for a Flying Machine, c. 1488

"The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding."

“Jan Vermeer”Johannes VermeerOctober 31, 1632 - December 16, 1675“Little Street” and “View of Delft” 

For a long time relatively little was

known about Vermeer's life. He

seems to have been exclusively devoted to his art, living out his life in the city of

Delft. In the 19th century the only

sources of information were

some registers, a few official documents and comments by

other artists; it was for this reason that

Thoré Bürger named him "The Sphinx of

Delft"

The Procuress

1656 Oil-on-canvas painting which shows a genre

scene in a brothel - one of the two women is

the eponymous procuress while the

figure on the left has been

identified by some as a self portrait of the

artist.

View of Delft is an oil painting painted ca. 1660-1661, the

painting of the Dutch artist's hometown is among his most

popular.

The Girl with the Wine Glass

1659-1660 painting

by Johannes Vermeer, now in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in

Braunschweig

 1664-65

Oil on canvas, Metropolitan

Museum of Art, New York

Young woman with

a water pitcher 

The Milkmaid

An oil-on-canvas painting of a "milkmaid",

in fact a domestic

kitchen maid.

It is now in the Rijksmuseuin Amsterdam,Netherlands,

which regards it as

"unquestionably one of the

museum's finest attractions“.

Girl with a Pearl Earring

This is considered a Vermeer masterpiec

e.

http://www.biography.com/people/leonardo-da-vinci-40396?page=2

http://www.drawingsofleonardo.org/

http://www.biography.com/people/jan-vermeer-9517541

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer