Da Vinci Painted It All By Himself?

It has long been known that many of the great masters had teams of assistants who helped create the masterpieces we enjoy to this day. The assistants often had specialties...some might paint clouds, others rocks, etc.

Leonardo Da Vinci was no exception.

His painting, "Virgin of the Rocks" has long been thought to have been painted with a team of assistants. Recently the painting was cleaned and it is now believed that the master painted this one all by himself.

So if a team helped paint a masterpiece...does that make it any less masterful? If the "painter" is more or less a director does that make him any less a maestro? Is the ensemble method of art only valid in music and theater or large scale projects such as Christo's that would be physically impossible for a single person to accomplish?

These are interesting questions for artists and art lovers to ponder.

An artist is the visionary and the driving force to have the vision brought into reality.

Does that mean that perhaps the artist does not need to personally have any skill with brush, chisel or other tool?

After all, there are many artisans who have technical skills but lack the creative vision to bring something unique to life.

Perhaps the artist does have the skills necessary (as of course Da Vinci did) but lacks the time to breath life into all the visions that exist in his mind's eye. Thus using a team to bring the pieces forth benefits all...the artist, the team and the world.

I'd love to hear thoughts from other artists and art lovers on this...for example, if you bought an oil painting by a particular artist and learned that he or she didn't actually do all the painting on the canvas, would that matter to you? Would it have less value monetarily or spiritually for you?

If you'd to read more about the cleaning of the Da Vinci that insp, click here.