Saint Anne is one of the works that Leonardo da Vinci carried with him for many years, until his death, making it over time a place of continuous experimentation. The painting is not to be understood as a simple completed commission, but as a complex construction in which observation, memory, and invention progressively merge into a unified organism.
The landscape of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne is constructed through distinct levels. While maintaining a unified point of reference, Leonardo da Vinci geometrically develops different portions of the landscape, recomposed tridimensionally in the painting according to a coherent and intentional design.
It is precisely this constructive approach that makes it possible to represent a real landscape in its entirety, overcoming the physical limits of direct observation without renouncing geographical precision.
The mirabilissime invenzioni operate within a different observational regime. They are intentional figurative forms, inserted into the limbs of the painting, according to a conscious procedure. They do not derive from the levels of landscape construction, but introduce an autonomous temporal dimension, linked to observation, experience, memory, and the artist’s testimony, which integrates into the very structure of the work.
Among the identified images, particular importance is assumed by the recurring presence of the self-portrait, understood not as an automatic recognition, but as a hypothesis of a conscious relationship between Leonardo and his own work, verifiable through formal and stylistic comparisons. Its relevance lies in its testimonial function, which introduces into the painting a specific temporality in relation to the spatial construction of the landscape.
This page is part of a progressive analytical pathway. You may follow the proposed reading order, or access individual sections directly via the catalogue. In the latter case, some analyses presuppose methodological steps already addressed in previous pages.
