The Baptism of ChristThe first known and dated work of Leonardo da Vinci is a pen and ink drawing of a valley shaped by the river Arno. The drawing dated 5th of August 1473 reflects the ingenious mind of Leonardo. The Arno valley is drawn with aerial perspective by allowing the color of the paper to dominate and less details as the depth increases. This effect will be called later "the perspective of disappearance".
1472-1475 Leonardo da Vinci assisted his master Andrea del Verrocchio on the painting "Baptism of Christ", which was commissioned by the monks of San Salvi near Florence. The angel kneeling at the far left, parts of the landscape and the body of Christ are considered to be from Leonardo.
Vasari reported about this painting: Verrocchio had already done the main work: "Leonardo painted an angel who was holding some garments; and despite his youth, he executed it in such a manner that his angel was far better than the figures painted by Verrocchio. This was the reason why Andrea would never touch colours again, he was so ashamed that a boy understood their use better than he did." It's also true that this was Verrocchio's last known painting.
An x-ray of this painting showed that the original sketching Verrocchio did for Leonardo's angel was entirely different from the final result. Leonardo was freeing himself of his master's coaching to follow his own path. It's interesting to compare the two angels, Leonardo's playing close attention to the action, the figure looking quite natural and part of the activities and scene. In contrast, Verrocchio's angel stares off into space with no interest in what is going on and he looks a little bit bored.
Of the four figures in the painting the angle painted by Leonardo is significantly better than the others, the rest being by Verrocchio (John the Baptist), Botticelli, Credi and various other students.