Leonardo De Vinci's Self

Leonardo Da Vinci's most well known self portrait, painted in 1512 portrays a very sad, yet wise expression. I chose this piece because of it's originality when compared to other art produced during the early renaissance. Unlike many other artists, his sketches represented the final piece instead of painting the canvas with a large variety of rich colors to express the wealth or abundance in a  person. Da Vinci chooses not to polish his aged face, but to show the good side of wrinkles, and disproportional facial features, his nose for example. His eyes show years of hard work and the artist admirably used no impressive head wear or cloak to show wealth. This sketch is a good example of realism- the use of shade, or shadows and perspective was used correctly and so fits in with all the other art that rose in popularity during this time period. Like most portraits at the time, the poser is sitting in the usual position of doing absolutely nothing, some other examples would be some of Lorenzo De Medici's many self portraits, and one of his most renowned works  the Mona Lisa. Although this sketch is similar to other renaissance paintings it does not have the same theme, this work is not religious nor classical, it's just a realistic sketch with out any beautification's, abundantly colored robes, or  signs of respect, for this figure is not unrealistically overweight.

http://animeonly.org/albums/FEDOROS_RULES/1600x1200/Fine-Art/Fine-Art---Renaissance/Self_Portrait_in_Old_Age,_Leonardo_da_Vinci,_1512.jpg