Leonardo da Vinci began work on The Last Supper for the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, under the patronage of Duke Ludovico Sforza. Instead of true fresco (paint on wet plaster), he used an experimental method on a dry wall to pursue finer detail and slower, more revisable painting. This choice helped him achieve subtle expressions and gestures, but it also made the mural fragile.
Leonardo finished The Last Supper, depicting the moment Christ announces that one disciple will betray him. The mural’s balanced geometry and tightly observed reactions of the apostles became a key statement of High Renaissance art—uniting dramatic storytelling with controlled composition. However, the experimental technique began to deteriorate relatively soon after completion.
Around this time Leonardo designed a large decorative scheme for the Sala delle Asse in Milan’s Castello Sforzesco. The room’s painted canopy of interlaced trees and vegetation shows his interest in nature and illusionistic space, extending High Renaissance ideas beyond altarpieces into courtly interiors. It also underscores how Milanese patronage supported Leonardo’s wide-ranging artistic experiments.
When French forces took Milan and Ludovico Sforza fell from power, Leonardo left the city soon after. The political shift disrupted court commissions and pushed him back toward central Italy. This break marks the transition from his first major Milanese phase into a new period of work shaped by Florentine civic projects.
After leaving Milan, Leonardo visited Mantua and produced a portrait drawing of Isabella d’Este. The work shows how his reputation traveled with him, attracting powerful patrons even during political upheaval. It also illustrates his continuing interest in capturing personality through subtle modeling rather than rigid profile conventions.
Back in Florence, Leonardo was welcomed as a famous native artist and took on advisory roles that drew on his architectural and engineering knowledge. His return placed him in a competitive artistic environment where public commissions mattered greatly. This setting helped drive his next major projects, including a new kind of portrait and a large state mural commission.
Leonardo began painting the portrait known as the Mona Lisa while in Florence. The work became a landmark in portraiture through its lifelike presence, soft transitions of light and shadow, and a landscape that deepens the sense of space. He kept the painting with him for years, treating it as an ongoing project rather than delivering it quickly.
The Florentine government commissioned Leonardo to paint the Battle of Anghiari for the Hall of the Five Hundred in the Palazzo Vecchio. This was meant to celebrate a historic Florentine victory and to project civic strength through art. The commission pushed Leonardo from private-scale work into a high-profile public competition setting.
A dated marginal note by Agostino Vespucci (a Florentine official) indicates that by October 1503 Leonardo was working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, while also negotiating work for the Great Council hall. This note is important because it ties Leonardo’s portrait painting directly to the same moment he was moving toward major civic projects. It helps anchor the timeline for the Mona Lisa within Leonardo’s Florentine activities.
After extensive preparation, Leonardo began work on the Battle of Anghiari but did not complete it. Reports describe technical difficulties linked to his experimentation with materials and methods, and the project ultimately remained unfinished. The failure of this major public commission shaped his reputation in Florence and helped explain why he soon returned to Milan.
Leonardo accepted an invitation to return to Milan, now governed by French authorities, and re-entered a courtly environment that valued his engineering and artistic skills. This move shifted his focus away from Florence’s demanding civic commissions. In Milan he gathered pupils and worked intermittently on major projects that had long histories, including the Virgin of the Rocks commission.
By 1508 the second version of The Virgin of the Rocks was considered complete enough to receive final payment. The long delay—stemming from disputes and restarts—shows how Leonardo’s perfectionism and shifting circumstances could stretch projects over decades. The work also became a model of High Renaissance complexity, blending careful observation of nature with an idealized sacred scene.
Leonardo moved to Rome under the patronage of Giuliano de’ Medici and received workspace connected to the Vatican area. This relocation placed him near powerful patrons and the center of papal culture, even as younger artists rose to prominence. It also marked another transition in his late career, away from large Milanese commitments toward experimentation and ongoing refinement of works he carried with him.
In 1516 Leonardo settled in France at the invitation of King Francis I, bringing works that remained in his possession, including paintings he had continued to refine over many years. This move effectively ended his Milan–Florence cycle and set the stage for his posthumous influence through artworks that entered the French royal collections. It also explains how paintings like the Mona Lisa became central to France’s cultural heritage.
Leonardo died in 1519, with the Mona Lisa still in his studio—evidence that he treated it as a long-term, evolving work rather than a routine commission. His death closed the period in which High Renaissance ideals were shaped by his direct experiments in composition, technique, and psychological realism. The paintings he carried across Milan, Florence, Rome, and France became lasting reference points for European art.
Leonardo da Vinci in Milan and Florence: Last Supper to Mona Lisa (1495–1519)