The Atheist Innovator Used Religious Commissions to Fly Like Angels

THE GUARDIAN
By Jonathon Jones

Detail "The Annunciation" by Leonardo da Vinci. Photograph: Francesco Bellini/AP

ITALY---Leonardo da Vinci painted the most beautiful angels in the world. This is strange, because Leonardo was not a religious man. Although the National Gallery made a vivid case for him as a religious artist in its 2011 exhibition of his paintings, there is very little in his notebooks to suggest that Christianity was part of his everyday, personal life. However compelling Leonardo's religious paintings are, it has to be remembered that all are commissioned works. No painter could have a career in Renaissance Italy without creating altarpieces. [link]