World Art Day 2022: Revisiting Leonardo da Vinci's best works on his birth anniversary

World Art Day 2022: April 15 marks the ‘World Art Day’ to honour the memory and work of the greatest artist of all time, Leonardo Da Vinci, who gave this world the Mona Lisa. It is his birth anniversary.

UNESCO’s General Conference in 2012 declared April 15 World Art Day to celebrate and encourage various known and unsung art and artists. Vinci became a symbol of peace and harmony through his work.

On the occasion of Vinci’s birth anniversary, here’s a log of some of his best works to date.

Mona Lisa

There cannot be a mention of Vinci without Mona Lisa. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that two complements or rather complete each other. Several mysteries and myths continue to hover over Mona Lisa but it still remains one of Vinci’s best works to date.

Mona Lisa is famous for the sheer perfection of colours and blend that makes it almost impossible for a viewer to detect if it was painted by a brush.

The Vitruvian Man

According to critics, The Vitruvian Man is undoubtedly one of the most popular works by Vinci. It represents the ideal proportions of the human body.

The painting was based on the writings of Vitruvius. In this, Vinci places the human body in a circle and a square, with the navel and the genitals at the centre, and composes the body.

The Last Supper

It is believed that the 15th-century Milanese duke Ludovico Sforza, who asked Vinci to make this painting later made him one of the greatest artists in the world.

The Last Supper depicts the Last meal of Jesus Christ. The work on this began around 1495 and was completed around 1498.

 The Last Supper is famous for its original technique for a fresco of the time, the use of dry paint on several preparatory layers usually left wet, which has weakened the work and has therefore since been restored many times. 

La Vierge aux rochers

Created between 1483 and 1508, the Virgin of the Rocks depicts the encounter between Jesus of Nazareth and John the Baptist.

This painting was created in two different versions, the first between 1483 and 1486, and the second between 1491 and 1508, only the first version, exhibited in the Louvre, can however be attributed to Leonardo da Vinci with surety.