Brushstroke maestro

The Duke of Milan commissioned Da Vinci to paint The Last Supper on the back wall of a monastery dining hall.

It took three years to finish and the work captures Jesus and the Twelve Apostles at the Passover dinner. Use of tempera and oil on dried plaster led to quick deterioration and flaking, but this has been stabilised with modern conservation techniques.

Da Vinci started working on the Mona Lisa – arguably the most famous painting in the world – in 1503.

The painting is characterised by the woman’s enigmatic smile.

Adding to the painting’s allure is the mystery of the woman’s identity. Could she be Da Vinci’s mother, a courtesan, his apprentice wearing women’s clothes, Princess Isabella of Naples or Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a wealthy Florentine silk merchant? Today it hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, secured behind bulletproof glass.