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Adored by poets, plagiarized by artists, parodied by critics and even stolen by an Italian workman,

the most famous painting in the world by the most celebrated artist in the world, Leonardo da Vinci.

A man who completed barely 20 pictures, but whose influence was immense.

A man of enormous curiosity, who investigated everything from the possibilities of flight

to the workings of the human blood system, and whose intellect illuminated the world in which he lived.

Leonardo da Vinci was born just outside the small town of Vinci, near Florence, on the 15th of April, 1452,

the illegitimate son of a peasant girl and a local lawyer.

He lived with his father's family, a comfortable childhood,

but nonetheless one tainted by the feeling that his mother had rejected him.

As a young boy, Leonardo was said to have developed a profound love of nature.

Reputedly, he was a vegetarian, who bought birds in the marketplace,

in order to set them free.

Leonardo's upbringing was very traditional, but the world around him was changing, and changing rapidly.

Explorers were discovering that there were places well beyond the continent of Europe,

and there were big developments in astronomy.

The feudal system was declining, and commerce and capitalism were rising.

In turn, there was an intellectual revolution afoot,

based on a revival of classical art, architecture and scholarship,

which blossomed here, in a city that's since become known as the cradle of civilisation, Florence.

Only a few miles from Vinci, 15th century Florence was one of the most powerful Italian city-states,

thanks largely to its immensely successful wool and banking trades.

Rich families tried to make their mark for posterity by financing ever more splendid decorations of palaces, churches and monasteries.

Among the growing number of respected artists whose work graced the great buildings of the city

was Andrea del Verrocchio, a sculptor and painter who ran one of the best studios,

and who in 1467 took on the 15-year-old Leonardo as an apprentice.

During his five years as Verrocchio's pupil, he learnt to draw from life,

prepare panels, cast in bronze and use oils.

Oil painting was a recently imported technique from the Netherlands.

Leonardo began to explore the expressive possibilities of the new medium,

which gave colour an unprecedented freshness and depth.

Leonardo's first major individual painting was realised sometime in the mid-1470s,

and it's this one.

It was commissioned by the nuns of the convent of Monte Olivetto, just outside Florence,

and it shows the Annunciation,

that moment where the angel Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary

and tells the young Virgin that she's going to be the mother of Christ.

And Leonardo depicts this gently unfolding drama.

There's the angel making the gesture, it's you.

There's Mary, in some ways shocked,

but already that process of quiet reflection is starting.

This, it seems to me, is a number of pictures seeking some kind of unity.

And in fact, there are flaws in this work, even though it's by Leonardo da Vinci.

But I think the biggest flaw is the Virgin herself.

Even though her robe is actually tossed over the back of a chair,

it makes her look as if she's got three legs.

Also, and perhaps a little bit more disturbingly,

in order to bind the Virgin herself to this foreground scene

and the lectern on which her book is placed,

if you look at her arm, her right arm,

it's actually far too overextended.

It's way longer than it should be.

And that's Leonardo fudging it, if you like, to try and make the picture work.

But he redeems himself with his acute attention to detail.

Most extraordinary of all is the way that he paints Gabriel's wings.

And this was unprecedented in Italian art,

but he'd studied birds, feathers, wings,

and he'd made detailed studies from nature,

and then transfers what he's learnt to create an angel,

this fantastical creation.

But that's the point with Leonardo.

It's nature and a scrutiny of nature

in order to bring everything closer to life.

His whole creative life was based on the need

to understand a world around him in order to recreate it,

to produce, as he put it, a second world of nature,

which was his definition of painting.

Throughout his life, Leonardo produced thousands of drawings

of plants, people, machinery and architecture.

Today, over 7,000 pages from his notebook survive,

but countless more have been lost.

Some show quick sketches.

Others have very detailed illustrations.

Perhaps because he was left-handed

and didn't want the ink to smudge as he wrote,

the text is always written back to front,

so you need a mirror to read it from left to right.

Some also believe, though,

that this was a deliberate attempt to conceal what he was up to.

But if he was hiding some of his intellectual talents

under a bushel,

his painterly ones were beginning to burn brightly.

Leonardo's progress in Florentine society

is marked by this particular painting,

which was commissioned by the Benci family,

who in turn were administrators

in the great Medici family's bank.

And this is of their daughter,

Ginevra de Benci.

It's painted roughly in 1474,

the year that she got married to a man twice her age.

Here she is, a 16-year-old girl,

and the emphasis on youth in this painting

is very strong,

because Leonardo himself is only in his early 20s.

What we see is a picture of Ginevra

staring out in a rather contemplative,

distant kind of way,

set against the backdrop of a landscape

that's beautifully rendered,

with a church steeple clearly visible in the background,

soft colours,

this beautiful idealised river,

and a bush right behind her head,

which in fact is the juniper bush,

Ginepro in Italian,

and it's a rhyme or a pun

on Ginevra's name.

The way that Leonardo paints this

shows how much his touch and style is developing.

It's very controlled.

Look at the way that the foliage,

or the bush itself, is done.

Look also at the way that her hair

has been highlighted,

to give it more body,

but to give the painting itself

a greater sense of space and depth.

Also, her hair has this dome-like appearance,

and this was part of the fashion of the day.

And in fact, women's eyebrows were plucked,

and also their hair was plucked a little,

to give that sense of smoothness.

Her skin is almost bloodless.

Again, one of the fashions

amongst women of this social class

was to have very pale skin.

But one of the ways that Leonardo manages

to render the skin so naturally

and bring it almost to life

is because although he's using a brush,

he obliterates the brush stroke,

sometimes by using his own fingers.

Leonardo soon had a studio of his own

in Florence.

The popular image of Leonardo

is based on this late sketch by the artist.

We don't have any portraits of him as a young man.

But in his 20s,

he was described as tall, handsome,

and something of a dandy in his dress.

At the age of 24,

he was accused of committing acts of sodomy

with one of his models.

Leonardo's homosexuality is an unresolved issue,

but in view of the morality of the times,

not least the fact that it was punishable by death,

it may go some way to explaining his secretive

and occasionally paranoid nature.

In 1481, Leonardo was commissioned

by a monastery just outside Florence

to paint an altarpiece featuring the adoration of the Magi.

What we see now

is mainly the brownish underpainting,

but we can still see his incredible range

of gestures

and facial expressions

with over 60 figures depicted.

The whole scene is tied together

by Leonardo's dynamic

yet carefully controlled composition.

Using a precise system of perspective,

he puts the central characters

in a simple triangular format

which is offset by the turbulent action

all around them.

It's an image of confidence

and energy

which threatens to break out of the frame

and yet it's calm at the centre.

Like so many of his works, though,

it was to remain unfinished.

At the age of 30

and with a reputation established in Florence,

Leonardo became restless

and decided to leave for new challenges

in the city of Milan.

The Milan that Leonardo da Vinci came to in 1482

didn't have quite the same stunning reputation

for art as Florence did,

but it was larger

and had a more cosmopolitan outlook

towards the rest of Europe.

It was also ruled

by one of the wealthiest,

most powerful princes

in Renaissance Italy,

Ludovico Sforza,

Duke of Milan,

who was a lavish patron of the arts.

Leonardo wrote to the Duke

advertising the many services

he could perform,

only adding at the end

that in painting

I can do as much as anyone,

whoever he may be.

Leonardo actually thought

his talents as military engineer

and inventor

would be more useful to the Duke

and better paid.

But he wasn't immediately accepted

into Ludovico's court,

as he'd hoped.

Instead,

he had to rely on his painter's trade

for income.

Leonardo's first known commission

in Milan was this one,

the so-called Virgin of the Rocks,

painted for a brotherhood of monks,

the confraternity of the Immaculate Conception,

in the church of San Francisco Grande

in the city.

What we see now

is an iconic work,

but it's a controversial one too.

Leonardo,

instead of sticking to the rigid rules

of a medieval-style commission,

where almost every detail

is stipulated in contract,

decided he was going to paint

his own version

of what initially

was commissioned

as a mother and child

or holy family.

Instead,

we see the presence

of the archangel Gabriel,

but,

and this is what annoyed the monks,

we also see

the Blessed Virgin Mary

with her arm around St John.

She's paying more attention

to John the Baptist

than to her own son Christ.

But what was really radical

about this work

and what, in fact,

led the monks

to disregard the commission

and refuse to accept it

was the radical way

that Leonardo treats

the figures and the landscape

and, in particular,

the relationship

between dark and light

and this picture,

almost on its own

but not quite,

gave birth to the term

in Italian art

chiaroscuro,

a contrast of light and shade.

So look at the four figures,

how they're almost

being sucked

into the darkness behind.

They teeter on the edge

of darkness and light,

but it gives them

a dramatic glow,

an ethereal glow too.

There's fantastic attention

to detail.

The plants are almost

botanical studies

in themselves,

painted with as much attention

as the faces and figures

and hands

of the bodies

of the holy family.

But ultimately,

it's this grotto-like space

in the background

that's like a womb

that threatens to overwhelm

that is the real dominant

orchestrating part

of the painting itself.

And really,

never before this

had nature and creation

been integrated

so strongly with figures.

Leonardo now secured

a permanent position

with Duke Ludovico

in Milan.

His job involved

a wide range of duties,

from painting portraits

of courtiers

to designing elaborate

courtly entertainments,

as well as working

on military engineering projects.

The court environment

was perfect

for Leonardo's particular needs.

It gave the artist

a permanent salary,

as well as the freedom

to pursue his own

private studies,

such as optics

and anatomy.

In a local hospital,

he dissected over 30 corpses

to understand better

the workings

of the human body.

His anatomical drawings

are so detailed

and so exact

that they've been compared

point by point

to modern X-rays.

In his 17 years in Milan,

Leonardo completed remarkably

few works of art.

He'd start something,

but would quickly discover

a new area of inquiry

which he'd pursue,

but which then threw up

other questions

and so it went on.

A constant excitement,

but also a source

of immense frustration.

Tell me,

he exclaimed frequently

in his notebooks,

tell me if anything

was ever done at all.

Leonardo's period

in Milan did, however,

produce a masterpiece

of singular fame.

The Last Supper

was commissioned

in 1495

for the convent

of Santa Maria

della Grazie

to be painted

onto the walls

of the refectory

where the monks

ate their meals.

Unfortunately,

Leonardo couldn't

resist experimenting

and the project

went dramatically wrong.

Much to his patron's

frustration,

Leonardo worked

very slowly.

To buy himself

more time,

he decided to try out

his own concoction

of slow-drying paints.

The experiment

didn't work

and the painting

was in ruins

before Leonardo

had died.

Using oils

did help him

accomplish

an extremely high

degree of modelling

which, combined

with his deft

handling of perspective,

must have suggested

to the monks

sitting down

at their tables

that another dining

hall had been added

to their refectory.

The scene captures

the moment

when Christ says,

one of you

will betray me.

Each apostle

is reacting

with shock

and disbelief,

whilst Christ

sits serenely

resigned to his fate.

In his quest

for naturalism,

Leonardo trawled

the streets

of Milan

to find suitable

characters

to transform

into disciples

via his sketchbooks.

He even sought

specific models

for certain body parts.

The mural

was immediately

hailed as miraculous

and even divine,

a monumental achievement

which has inspired

artists from Rubens

to Andy Warhol.

But Leonardo's career

in Milan

was cut short

by war.

In 1499,

a French army

invaded the city

and the duke

was captured.

Despite offers

of work

from the French king,

Leonardo decided

to leave.

The next few years

proved an unsettled

period for the artist.

He went to Mantua,

Venice

and then back

to Florence.

But he didn't thrive

so well outside

the court environment

and found it hard

to meet the deadlines

commissioned paintings

demanded.

Instead,

he used his many

other talents.

He worked

as an architectural

consultant,

antiques appraiser

and mapmaker.

In 1503,

he was employed

by the ruthless general

of the Pope's army,

Cesare Borgia.

For 10 months,

Leonardo travelled around

surveying the papal lands.

He drew extremely precise

aerial views

of towns and cities

using a special colour wash

to add relief

to his images.

The maps he produced

were more detailed

and accurate

than any others

of the day

and they're now seen

as the precursors

to modern topography.

The following year,

Leonardo was awarded

a high-profiled commission

by the Florentine government

for its headquarters

in the Palazzo della Signoria.

He was to paint

an historical scene,

twice as large

as the Last Supper.

His young rival,

Michelangelo,

was commissioned

at the same time

to paint a similar battle scene

on a facing wall.

Leonardo tried to paint

with oil

on polished plaster

but it wouldn't dry

and eventually

he had to abandon

the project.

Had it been completed,

the Battle of Anghiari

might have become

Leonardo's

most famous work.

Instead,

it's a relatively mysterious

and far less

prestigious commission

for which he's

become best known,

an intimate portrait

of a serene

and smiling woman.

The Mona Lisa's

not just the most famous

work of art in the world,

it's also one of the most elusive.

We're not totally certain

who it is

but it seems likely

from notes

in Leonardo's estate

that it's a portrait

of the wife

of a Florentine merchant

whose name was Lisa,

Lisa Gerardini

del Giaconda.

What we see though

is a rather murky image now.

We have to sift

through the varnish

that in some ways

has preserved it

but also the layers

of fame and celebrity

that now surround

this painting.

What Leonardo's asking us

to do,

look beyond the surface

because flesh

is painted here

in a way

that suggests

a world bubbling underneath.

What he gives us

is the image of a woman

who one minute

when you look at her

she seems to be melancholic

and the next minute

she seems breaking out

into a smile

and this

is its originality.

She's in the process

of becoming.

Look around her mouth

and you see

that it's that split second

before the melancholy

breaks into the smile itself

and he does this

through a technique

known as sfumato

where the edges

particularly around the lips

are blurred slightly

and it gives a sense

of movement

or transformation

or transition.

That's also backed up

by the landscape itself

in the background

which is also

a bubbling vibrant mass.

You can see

the river flowing

and then

there's the idea

if you look again

at the landscape

not quite working.

Leonardo skews it

so the horizon lines

on the right hand side

doesn't correspond

with the horizon line

on the left hand side

and when you look at that

there's almost a flicker

your eyes being deceived

that the Mona Lisa herself

has moved her head

and it adds to that sense

of fluidity

and dynamism.

And for these reasons

she's a staggering

and celebrated work of art

who within 10 years

of Leonardo's death

was valued at 100 skewdy

unprecedented

for a painting of this size

and for a portrait.

She also exists in the Louvre

the world's first

great public gallery

and she was an early example

of a work reproduced

in photography

that became a postcard

that was sent

to the far-flung corners

of the world

by the end of the 19th century

and started to attract people

to come to Paris

on a kind of pilgrimage

and so

at the end of the 20th century

into the 21st century

what we have

is something much more

than a work of art.

In an age of mass production

mass media

and mass tourism

we have a work

that is famous

for being famous

where celebrity

is a self-perpetuating thing.

in 1506

Leonardo had become

such an important

international figure

that the king of France

and the government

of Florence

fought a diplomatic battle

over his services.

The French king won

and Leonardo returned

to Milan

as court artist.

As before

he devised

courtly entertainments

he also made designs

for sculptures

and buildings

but his artistic output

was minimal

during the six years

he spent back in the city.

Most of his time

was devoted

to his studies

in particular

research into

the human anatomy.

In 1513

politics disrupted

his career

once again

when Milan

was invaded

and the French

expelled.

Into his 60s now

Leonardo found himself

without a job.

He settled in Rome

for three years

working for the pope's

brother

mainly on military

inventions.

Here he met

Michelangelo and Raphael

but remained essentially

an eccentric recluse.

This is one of his last works.

It shows St John the Baptist

pointing the way to heaven

and it echoes

the gesture

made by the angel

in the annunciation

of his first painting

in Florence.

But it's much more radical

in that the saint

is directly addressing

the viewer.

in this luminous

transparent way

that he paints skin

which he brings it to life.

But at the same time

it's an eerie work

and a work where ambiguity

one of the hallmarks

of his painting

is pushed to an extreme.

For a start

we're not sure

whether this is a man

or a woman.

It blurs gender.

Also

what's supposed to be

a beatific smile

on the face of the saint

looks slightly demonic

almost deranged.

And then there's the ambition

of trying to make a painting

almost totally out of

the contrast

of light and shade

of Kira Skuru

which is ambitious

which suggests depth

as well as drama

but at the same time here

he's overmannered

and the result

is slightly mawkish

even sentimental.

But of course

there's the other side

of the same coin

with Leonardo

that here is a man

in old age

who's still trying

to push and experiment

and the lessons

that he's learned

and developed

over his life

he still wants

to take to an extreme

towards the end of it.

In 1516

Leonardo returned

to the service

of the French king

Francis I

this time

at the royal palace

near Amboise

in France.

His health

began to deteriorate

and he died

on the 2nd of May

1519

at the age of 67.

The range

of his creative activities

and the scope

of his imagination

was immense.

A man who grasped

perhaps a bigger picture

than ever before

as well as painting them.

But he also realised

how little mankind

knew of the world

around him

and it's perhaps

this intense self-awareness

and thwarted ambition

that are the real strength

of Leonardo's genius.