From the face to the aura. Leonardo da Vinci’s sfumato and the history of female portraiture

The article traces the development of female portraiture in the Renaissance from profile to en face and also discusses Leonardo's fundamental contribution to this development. The conclusion is the thesis that Leonardo was interested not only in the face of the women portrayed, but even more so in the creation of an aura. Contrary to what researchers have assumed for more than a century, perhaps this new portraiture is not about creating a likeness and bringing out the individuality of the face but instead much more about the aura of the painting as a whole, evoked through the painterly depiction.