With painting as his art form, Leonardo Da Vinci proved to be one of the greatest artists who ever lived. The techniques he created in those years are considered to have been revolutionary to the world of art and today are studied as founding pillars of the Renaissance and movements that followed.
His palette in particular is incredibly famous for its ability to have been so revolutionary with so many aspects of art. In the Mona Lisa alone, Da Vinci was able to create numerous new methods of painting. For a man whose painting career was not nearly as prolific as some of his contemporaries, the impact he had on artistic expression is absolutely unmatched.
The first step in Leonardo’s paintings was to craft an underpainting composed entirely of basic browns and grays. This can be seen in his unfinished painting of St. Jerome, showing only those neutral colors with no form, lighting or shading. The addition of color does not come until much later when Leonardo would apply glazes of a transparent substance over the top of that underpainting. Because of that transparency, the upper glazes show bits of the underpainting, providing a guide of sorts for Leonardo’s painting.
What Was the Style of Leonardo Da Vinci?
Mona Lisa : 1503-05
His palettes were almost always very realistic, taken from the muted tones of the everyday veranda or river valley. On a typical palette for Leonardo Da Vinci sat browns, greens and blues all within the same basic range, so as to create the unity that his paintings have been so lauded for. He refrained from the brilliant yellows and reds of his predecessors and grabbed attention not with his colors, but with his technique.
It was in the lighting that almost all of Leonardo Da Vinci’s brilliance shone. His facial features were crafted through very carefully constructed blending and the carrying of colors between features. For this reason, in paintings such as the Mona Lisa, the lighting becomes darker and less colorful the further away from her face you are. Such a subtle technique draws absolute attention to the face and features of the sitter.
Another technique Leonardo Da Vinci developed in his Mona Lisa was that of sfumato. Sfumato, derived from the Italian word for smoke was Leonardo Da Vinci’s technique for softening and blending edges with a series of dark glazes. Rather than simply mixing the colors on his palette, Leonardo continually applied differing tones in glaze to create a certain depth that would never have been possible otherwise. This application of multiple transparencies created new colors that would be impossible through the simple mixing of paint.
Vitruvian Man - 1492
In Leonardo Da Vinci’s perspective drawings, his various methods of geometrical progression and careful construction can be found. For Leonardo Da Vinci, perspective in art was one of the most important aspects. He developed the newly minted single point perspective in his Mona Lisa and was always careful to craft the most detailed of proportions, utilizing nearly perfect ratios in his work. His Vitruvian Man shows a meticulous care for the importance of perspective art.
Leonardo Da Vinci used numerous other tonal and glazing effects in his painting, many of which have been recognized as the first time in modern art. He did not simply paint as painting was done at that time. He recognized what he needed and wanted in an image and if a technique did not exist to create it, he invented a new technique. To recreate a similar palette and effect to that of Leonardo Da Vinci, a selection of earthy and transparent colors are ideal. It’s even possible to find predefined selections of “Da Vinci” like tones.
