Leonardo da Vinci’s most celebrated paintings

The places and characters painted by Leonardo belong to all of us, they are familiar and each time surprising. “The good painter must paint two principal things, that is, man and the concept of his mind. The first is easy, the second difficult because he must figure it with gestures and movements of the limbs.” Leonardo’s paintings respond to this rule of his, to the point that each protagonist reveals the inner world that characterises him.

Leonardo’s life unfolds through stages marked by travels and encounters, and so too do his paintings. Leonardo was born in Vinci on 15 April 1452 and spent his childhood and part of his adolescence there, before going to Florence. It is easy to think that the hills of Vinci and the agricultural context in which his family lived influenced his painting technique and his imagination – especially in landscapes. At the age of thirty, Leonardo moved to Milan to place himself in the service of Ludovico Sforza, called the Moor. He remained in Milan for about two decades, and works such as The Virgin of the Rocks, the Lady with an Ermine and of course The Last Supper, in the refectory of the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, were created. In 1503 he returned to Florence and began work on the Mona Lisa. He spent the last years of his life in France, at the court of Francis I in the royal castle of Amboise, where he died on 2 May 1519.

To celebrate the life and paintings of Leonardo, Cantine Leonardo da Vinci created the Da Vinci I Capolavori collection: a selection of the most famous Italian wine denominations, paired with Leonardo da Vinci’s artworks. A grand tour of the most vocated Italian wine territories, from Valpolicella to Chianti, passing through Montalcino, to represent the best of our national wine production. As well as the best of Leonardo’s artistic production, in his most well-known works. San Giovanni Battista is associated with Brunello di Montalcino, Bacchus in a landscape with Amarone della Valpolicella, The Virgin of the Rocks with Chianti Riserva and the Lady with an Ermine with Pinot Grigio IGT del Rubicone. Da Vinci I Capolavori are a synthesis of Italian beauty and excellence, objects to be displayed with pride, testimony to Leonardo’s genius and a tribute to his life: an extraordinary and endless adventure of art, science and nature.