Gallery work
Story and context
An altarpiece from Verrocchio's workshop in which the young Leonardo painted the kneeling angel at the far left and, most scholars agree, much of the misty landscape behind it.
Leonardo trained in the Florentine workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, a sculptor, goldsmith and painter. The Baptism was a shop picture, begun in tempera by the master and his assistants and finished later in oil.
Vasari tells the famous story that Leonardo painted one of the angels so well that Verrocchio, ashamed that a boy understood colour better than he, never touched paint again. The story is too neat to trust, since Verrocchio went on working, but the difference on the panel is real. Leonardo's angel turns in space, its hair falls in soft curls, and its face is modelled with gentle shadow, while the oil glazes in the far landscape already dissolve the hills into haze.
It is the earliest painting in which his hand can be picked out with confidence.
Share this gallery work
Share this work with a direct URL, rich preview image, and public gallery context.
by Mei Lin 