Now available in the Bookstore, Leonardo: Discoveries from Verrocchio’s Studio, Early Paintings and New Attributions focuses on Leonardo da Vinci’s early career, suggesting new candidates for his oldest surviving works and challenging existing notions about his role in the studio of his teacher, Andrea del Verrocchio. The seeds of this catalogue were sown over 20 years ago, when curator Laurence Kanter noticed that A Miracle of Saint Donatus of Arezzo—a panel painting in the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts—was not solely by Leonardo’s fellow student Lorenzo di Credi, as it was attributed, but was instead a collaboration between the two artists. This sparked decades of close study, both at Worcester and at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, where a companion panel, the Annunciation, resides. Just in time for the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death in 2019, this catalogue reconsiders assumptions about the artist’s early works, asking new questions and seeking to answer them with evidence seen in the paintings themselves: Did Leonardo learn to paint in tempera, as his teacher did? If so, what might a Leonardo painting in tempera look like? Given the collaborative nature of Renaissance workshops, is it possible to isolate Verrocchio’s own artistic personality and thus see more clearly who the young Leonardo really was? The book features careful analysis by Kanter of several early works, lush illustrations including three gatefolds, and three additional essays that present recent scientific analysis and imaging to support the new attributions of paintings, or parts of paintings, to Leonardo.

Tiffany Sprague

Director of Publications and Editorial Services

and Jennifer Lu

Editorial and Production Assistant