Saint John the Baptist

Leonardo da Vinci painted this Saint John the Baptist between 1513 and 1516, making it one of his final works. The Baptist emerges from absolute darkness, his mysterious smile echoing the Mona Lisa. He points upward toward heaven with his right hand while clutching a thin reed cross.

The painting's extreme chiaroscuro, with the figure lit against a completely black background, was radical for its time. Leonardo achieved this effect through dozens of thin oil glazes, building up flesh tones that seem to glow from within. Some viewers find the saint's feminine features and knowing expression unsettling.

Leonardo kept this painting with him until his death in France in 1519. It passed to the French royal collection and eventually to the Louvre. The ambiguous expression has generated centuries of interpretation, with some seeing spiritual ecstasy and others something more worldly.