Here we have a photo about the "San Girolamo" (St Jerome), a never completed painting made by the famous Leonardo da Vinci! It is located in the Vatican Pinacoteca, and it is important, in addition to the famous hand that made it, also for its history. Another way to understand how the painting collection of the Vatican Museums is able to give us unexpected surprises.  Stopping here during a tour I always underline how we are in front of something very special, especially because Leonardo da Vinci didn't live here in Rome for a long time...

Imagine how over the centuries the Leonardo's work of art was hidden, stolen, even split in two to sell it separately. A total destruction that, however, has not gone beyond. According to the tradition (today put in strong doubt), the St Jerome by Leonardo would have belonged to Angelica Kauffmann, swiss artist of the late XIX century. Probably you might ask how it is going to end up in her hand, although we do not have to surprise too much: already after his death, happened in 1519, everything that had to do with Leonardo, in particular the works, became something absolutely indispensable. Collectors all over the world tried to grab something of the great genius. Continuing further, we arrive at the Cardinal Joseph Fesch, who, at the beginning of the XIX century, found the picture even sawn in two: the part with the head of the saint would have been used by a shoemaker as a sort of stool, while another part was found in the store of a junk shop.

Today, however, we can admire this work of art sensing the Leonardo's style. We see a very elderly man and, by the appearance, he is in the act of praying, or, however, in a gesture of almost appealing. At his feet a lion, while all around him a cavernous and rocky environment, as if it were inside a cave. We can recognize the just mentioned gradient by Leonardo. In the course of his studies on perspective Leonardo noticed that the atmosphere, the air space, that separates the observer from the observed subject, can be deform. And so the subject seen by our eyes could be softer and paler, especially if they are at the background. For this reason Leonardo designed it slightly, with the edges not too sharp and defined. It is the tecnique named "sfumato", and now you can understand why.

But the surprises do not end here, since your background seems to recognize the studio, rough draft of Santa Maria Novella, (one of the churches and symbols of Florence). It remains only a suggestion, nothing more, but what is certain is that this work, although incomplete, can tell us so many things. But we have another example here, inside the Pinacoteca of the Vatican Museums, of something that was destroyed and then partly assembled again. Click here...