Leonardo was 37 years of age in the year 1489.  On the 2nd of April, he completed the book entitled "Of the human figure," a book on dissections of the human body so precise and detailed that the drawings are still being used today.  He was studying anatomy at a very young age.  His childhood surroundings were filled with remnants of years of despair left from the bubonic plague that killed 1/3 of the population of Europe during the 13th century continuing up until the beginning of the 1400 century. Sixty percent of the population was gone, leaving poverty and indeed a meek existence.

It took many years for the rebuilding of Europe, years Leonardo grew up in, that would affect everything he thought and did, including studying anatomy.  He wanted to know how the human body worked and why people had to die.  In his notes, he wrote of knowing individuals, talking to them on a regular basis about their health and illness (keeping detailed records), up until they died.  Then he would proceed to dissect them in order to understand what the caused their death. 

It is written he dissected 19 bodies, but there may have been more that we are not aware of. He also studied the anatomy of animals. Leonardo did not take life for granted; he relished in it and found great wonder and expectation in it.  He spent a lifetime trying to express how he felt by putting his hard work down in handwritten notes, paintings, drawings, sculptures and endless years of research on just about everything that came into contact with him. He read books written by great men of the past, like Vitruvius, a genius long before da Vinci's time, learning and soaking up knowledge on every subject imaginable. In my opinion, he wanted in turn to leave his work as a legacy for others to learn from, just as he had learned from those before him. 

~ Rena F. LaCaria

Below are some images taken from A COLLECTION OF WORKS BY LEONARDO DA VINCI. In progress are completed reproductions in oil by Rena F. LaCaria. Where Leonardo's work may have been a sketch, Ms. LaCaria has completed it in full color. The completed images will be placed together with the originals for your scrutiny and comparison, and all of Ms. LaCaria's works are for sale. All prices (see each painting) are in U.S. dollars.

Click on any image to see a larger version of the matching images side-by-side. Click your browser's Back button to return here. Colors in actual paintings will vary slightly from photographed images shown here. Please be aware that different monitors display color and texture differently.

Flat screen monitors, especially, do NOT show accurate color or texture.

This page will continue to be expanded with new paintings.
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The book, Leonardo, The Man Behind the Shroud, details how LEONARDO DA VINCI created the MONA LISA by using the same drawings he manipulated to transfer the image of a man to the cloth referred to as the SHROUD OF TURIN. This book is available for scholarly review and research at the Library of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

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da Vinci's Work	About the Images	LaCaria's Work
Apostle John was a very young man, likely around 16-17 years old and with very thin facial hair. Jewish men in Israel had very dark hair. Leonardo painted these figures based on people he knew, so their coloring is not accurate to the people of Jesus' time.	APOSTLE JOHN - 16" x 20" Apostle John c. 1495-98, sits on the right hand of Jesus. Notice the condition of the painting at left. Leonardo was trying a new Fresco preparation he developed himself, and it didn't take very well on the wall he used as his canvas, so the painting began to chip almost as soon as it was dry. Ms. LaCaria has done the painting with modern materials and in the true colors. The painting at right, by Rena F. LaCaria, reflects the current damaged state of the Last Supper.	$270,000 Notice the design of the collar of the tunic and the brooch in the center. It is not ordinarily something they would have worn. These men dressed very plainly and did not wear fine cloth and colorful designs. Those were worn by the rich.
Left: A larger section of THE LAST SUPPER, including Apostle John at far right. Right: The full version in it's true colors, as it shows in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. The Last Supper was damaged during World War II. Although the painting itself was covered with boards, the building that housed it was nearly destroyed. After the war, the painting was in need of major repair, and several artists were called upon to attend to it.
	LAST SUPPER: Christ, c. 1495-98Leonardo used the faces of people he knew in his works. The face of Christ in the Last Supper is actually the face of a man known as Count Giovanni. 16" x 20"	$150,000
	Venice Accademia, Italy, c. 1495. One of Leonardo da Vinci's placement sketches (red chalk) for the mural of THE LAST SUPPER. Note the words written over the heads of some of the figures - they are the names of people Leonardo used as models for the Apostles.	$120,000
	JUDAS - c. 1495-97 16" x 20"	$105,000
	STUDY OF APOSTLE PETER - 1495-97 - ink and pen over metalpoint
	Left: MONA LISA, begun in 1503 and completed in 1507. Located in the Louvre, Paris, France. Right: The Mona Lisa seated in a Roman folding chair in front of a window flanked by two large pillars. In the image at left, you can just see the foot of a pillar on the left side of the image. Was the Mona Lisa trimmed to remove the pillars in Leonardo's original? Very likely. In fact, it appears that the whole image was trimmed -- but why?	$1,500,000
	A copy, The Isleworth Mona Lisa, London, England Notice the columns and banister on the balcony and the chair she is sitting in... identical to da Vinci's Mona Lisa Visit the Mona Lisa page to see different versions of the Mona Lisa by various artists -- three of whom were students and friends of Leonardo's!
	PROPORTIONS OF THE FACE - c. 1489, is the features of the face of Leonardo da Vinci. 16" x 20" Leonardo's original sketch of Proportions of the Face was created from his studies of cadavers, the parts learned by dissection. He then used this one face as the basis for all other faces in every masterpiece he ever created... including the Mona Lisa. For more on Proportions of the Face, click here!	$250,000
	RED CHALK DRAWING - A Self-Portrait, c. 1514 Leonardo around 62 years of age living in Italy and homeless, created his own portrait on paper in red chalk, 13 1/8 inches by 8 3/8 inches, located today in the Biblioteca Reale (Turin Royal Library, Italy). In time, King Francis I of France, out of admiration and respect for the great master, gave him a place to call home during his last years. da Vinci many times wrote about his fear of poverty.	$95,000
	DRAGON STRIKING DOWN LION - 20" x 16"	$87,000
	GROTESQUE HEADS - c. 1495, pen and ink, 16" x 20" da Vinci- Ash. I. 9a: Of a method of keeping in mind the form of a face. If you want to acquire facility for bearing in mind the expression of a face, first make yourself familiar with a variety of forms of several heads, eyes, noses, mouths, chins and cheeks and necks and shoulders: Noses are of 10 types, face they are of 11 types; GROTESQUE FACES, I need say nothing, because they are kept in mind without difficulty.	$135,000
	ENVY - Allegorical Composition 20" x 16" da Vinci- Ox. 2b: "No sooner is Virtue born than ENVY comes into the world to attack it; and sooner will there be a body without a shadow than Virtue without ENVY.	$110,000
	LEDA - Study of a woman's head and coiffure, c. 1504-06, Black - chalk sketch 16" x 20" The black chalk drawing was finished in ink. The date goes from 1504-06. It is now located in Milan, Municipal Gallery, Castello Sforzesco. There is a picture of the painting in the book (Leonardo, The Man Behind the Shroud) on page 184 that shows the painting the drawing was used for. It is titled Leda and Her Two Sons Castor and Pollux; oil painting.	$135,000
	STUDY OF HANDS c. 1488 16" x 12" Female Hands, silverpoint on tinted yellowish paper with white highlights, from the Windsor Castle, Royal Library, England. da Vinci - Ash. I. I8a; Women must be represented in modest attitudes, their legs close together, their arms closely folded, their heads inclined and somewhat on one side.	$95,000
	VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ST. JOHN -
	TWINS - 16" x 20" ALLEGORICAL COMPOSITION. Ox. 2a: Pleasure and Pain represent as TWINS, since there never is one without the other. Clay, gold. If you take Pleasure, know that he has behind him one who will deal you Tribulation and repentance.	$85,000
	ORIENTAL HEADS - Red chalk, believed to be Cesare Borgia, really belongs to 3 different men. 12" x 24"	$120,000
	FLUTE - Drawing for flute cast in silver as a gift to Lodovico Sforza of Milan.  Across the mouth, stretched the strings.
	ARMORED TANK - da Vinci - C.A. 382a; II82a: I will make covered chariots, safe and unattackable, which, entering among the enemy with their artillery, there is no body of men so great but they would break them. And behind these, infantry could follow quite unhurt and without any hindrance.
	CANON OF PROPORTIONS - c. 1490, is the SHROUD OF TURIN 20" x 24" da Vinci: "The span of a man's outstretched arms is equal to his height." He drew a square around the figure to emphasize his point. He continued to explain the circle, "If you set your legs so far apart as to take a fourteenth part from your height and you open and raise your arms until you touch the line of the crown of the head with your middle fingers, you must know that the center of the circle formed by the extremities of the outstretched limbs will be the navel and the space between the legs will form an equilateral triangle."
	ANGEL - c. 1483, (silverpoint)  Study of head for Madonna of the Rocks 13" x 21"	$105,000
	STUDY OF THE DRAPERY OF A WOMAN, c. 1477 Leonardo draped cloth over clay models for indepth study, which he produced meticulous drawings in silverpoint with white highlights.
	POLYHEDRON - Geometric figure with three-dimensional forms.
	THE REDEEMER - pastel 12" x 16"	$135,000
	STABLES - da Vinci By simple means, the hay is brought up to the loft, as is shown by the machine. 19 1/2" x 12 1/2"
	PROPORTIONS OF THE FACE - (side view). From the book by Leonardo da Vinci, 'Of the Human Figure', April 2nd, 1489. 12" x 16"
	THE CONDOTTIERE- da Vinci's silverpoint drawing was made during the years between 1470-1477 studying under Andrea del Verrocchio. London, British Museum	$145,000
	MASK - One of the many da Vinci made to go with costumes for festivals.
	BERNADO DI BANDINO BARONCELLI, 1479 (drawing by da Vinci) Conspirator against the Medici, the Pazzi family attacked Giuliano d' Medici and Lorenzo the Magnificent, his brother, in a cathedral during worship services. Giuliano was killed by daggers, and Lorenzo was wounded but escaped. The Medici family sought revenge on the guilty ones, killing them by hanging and other means.
	YOUNG WOMAN, c. 1513 This was one of Leonardo's last works.