An “unprecedented” Leonardo da Vinci exhibition bringing together artworks never before seen in Britain will be staged next year by the National Gallery.

_{By Stephen Adams, Arts Correspondent Published: 1:03PM BST 22 Jul 2010}

Leonardo da Vinci: Painter At The Court Of Milan is said by the gallery to be the most complete display of Leonardo’s rare surviving paintings ever held.

The Trafalgar Square gallery is borrowing works including La Belle Ferroniere from the Louvre museum in Paris, the Madonna Litta (also known as Virgin and Child) from the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, and Saint Jerome from the Pinacoteca Vaticana in Rome, for the major exhibition.

It will concentrate on Leonardo’s time working as a salaried artist in the Milan court of Duke Lodovico Sforza in the late 1480s and 1490s.

During those years he was given the freedom to pursue his quest of achieving artistic perfection in drawing and painting the human form, as well as plants and animals.

A National Gallery spokesman explained: “While numerous exhibitions have looked at Leonardo da Vinci as an inventor, scientist or draughtsman, this is the first to be dedicated to his aims and techniques as a painter.

“As a painter, he aimed to convince the viewer of the reality of what they were seeing while still aspiring to create ideals of beauty – particularly in his exquisite portraits – and, in his religious works, to convey a sense of aweinspiring mystery.”

A full-scale copy of Leonardo’s Last Supper, made shortly after the original, is being lent by the Royal Academy for the exhibition.

It will be shown alongside all the surviving preparatory drawings made by Leonardo, so visitors can see how the huge painting was put together. The exhibition has been inspired by Leonardo’s recently-restored painting, The Virgin on the Rocks, which is currently on show.

_{Leonardo da Vinci: Painter At The Court Of Milan, sponsored by Credit Suisse, will run from 9 November 2011 to 5 February 2012, with an admission charge. (Adaptado de Acesso em 01 ago. 2010)}

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