Where can you see Leonardo da Vinci in Rome?

At the Vatican Museums: Saint Jerome in the Wilderness. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.

What is Leonardo da Vinci's most famous work in Rome?

Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, of about 1480 to 1490, at the Vatican Museums. The saint kneeling in the desert with his lion, left as an underpainting in browns. It shows how Leonardo built a picture before colour. The panel was once sawn in two, and the pieces were found separately in Rome in the nineteenth century.

When and where was Leonardo da Vinci born?

On 15 April 1452, at Anchiano, near Vinci, Italy. Leonardo da Vinci died on 2 May 1519, at Amboise, France, aged about 67.

What is Leonardo da Vinci known for?

Painted the Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in the world. Lived at the Vatican from 1513 to 1516. His only painting in Rome, the Saint Jerome, was never finished. Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter, of the High Renaissance.

Painter, 1452 to 1519

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo lived in Rome from 1513 to 1516, in rooms at the Vatican, and painted almost nothing there. The one work of his the city owns came later, by an accident.

Attributed to Francesco Melzi, Public domain

Born: 1452, Anchiano, near Vinci, Italy
Died: 1519, Amboise, France
Movement: High Renaissance
In Rome: 1 work in 1 museum

Where to see Leonardo da Vinci in Rome

Each work with the museum it hangs in. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.

Vatican Museums1 work

Saint Jerome in the Wilderness
about 1480 to 1490
The saint kneeling in the desert with his lion, left as an underpainting in browns. It shows how Leonardo built a picture before colour. The panel was once sawn in two, and the pieces were found separately in Rome in the nineteenth century.

The life of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo was born near the Tuscan town of Vinci in 1452 and trained in Florence. He was a painter, an engineer, an anatomist and a musician, and he filled thousands of pages of notebooks with studies of water, flight and the human body. He painted slowly and abandoned much of what he began, so fewer than twenty paintings are accepted as his.

He came to Rome in 1513, when a Medici was elected pope, and was given rooms in the Belvedere of the Vatican. He spent three years there on mirrors, mathematics and anatomy while Raphael and Michelangelo took the great commissions. In 1516 he left for France, where he died in 1519.

What to know

Painted the Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in the world
Lived at the Vatican from 1513 to 1516
His only painting in Rome, the Saint Jerome, was never finished

Born: 15 April 1452, Anchiano, near Vinci, Italy
Died: 2 May 1519, Amboise, France

Leonardo da Vinci: common questions

Where can you see Leonardo da Vinci in Rome?: At the Vatican Museums: Saint Jerome in the Wilderness. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.
What is Leonardo da Vinci's most famous work in Rome?: Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, of about 1480 to 1490, at the Vatican Museums. The saint kneeling in the desert with his lion, left as an underpainting in browns. It shows how Leonardo built a picture before colour. The panel was once sawn in two, and the pieces were found separately in Rome in the nineteenth century.
When and where was Leonardo da Vinci born?: On 15 April 1452, at Anchiano, near Vinci, Italy. Leonardo da Vinci died on 2 May 1519, at Amboise, France, aged about 67.
What is Leonardo da Vinci known for?: Painted the Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in the world. Lived at the Vatican from 1513 to 1516. His only painting in Rome, the Saint Jerome, was never finished. Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter, of the High Renaissance.