The most famous pictures where the scheme is used in exterior work are amongst the finest portraits known to us, namely, Lionardo's Mona Lisa, and Raphael's Maddalena Doni and Angelo Doni.[a] In 1504 or thereabouts, Lionardo painted a portrait of Mona Lisa sitting in a loggia, the wall of which reached to a third of the height of the canvas.[b] On the wall at each side of the design is a column divided down the centre by the edge of the canvas. There is a landscape setting, in which the middle distance is hidden by rising ground, and only part of the head appears above the horizon. In 1505 Raphael made a study from this picture in which he retained the columns, but raised the wall, and threw the whole head of the figure against the sky. He used this study for the portrait of Maddalena Doni, but in this he still further improved the design by removing the columns, and extending to the shoulders that part of the figure above the horizon, the line of which divides the picture in equal halves, instead of being drawn at two thirds of the height as in the first Mona Lisa. When Lionardo executed the Louvre portrait of this lady, he removed the columns, but slightly reduced the portion of the head seen against the sky. Raphael's plan, which was also used in the portrait of Angelo Doni, is obviously far superior to that in the Mona Lisa design, for the relief is necessarily better marked. The scheme was not new to Raphael at the time, except in portraiture, for it is exhibited in three of his very early sacred works.[c] [a] The first at the Louvre, and the others at the Pitti Palace, Florence. [b] This painting, or one corresponding to it, is in the Boston Museum, U. S. A. See Note 56. [c] Saint Sebastian, at Bergamo; The Redeemer at Brescia; and The Prophets and Sybils at Perugia. One of the best examples in existence of this method of securing relief is Tintoretto's Presentation of the Virgin.[a] On the right of the picture is a wide flight of stairs, curving round as they ascend. The Virgin is moving up these steps in advance of some attendants, and the curved stairway enables all the figures to stand out in fine relief against the sky. If well managed some considerable space above the figures is sufficient for the illusion even if the sides are partly closed, as in Albertinelli's beautiful Salutation.[b] Where only a small portion of the figure can be shown above the horizon, the use of a faint far distance helps in the scheme of relief. Thus, in Marco Basaiti's Christ on the Mount of Olives,[c] where Christ stands on the top of a rock which hides the middle distance, His head only is above the horizon, but the rest of the figure is thrown against a faint far distance, the relief being excellent. A modification of this plan is observable in Lionardo's Virgin and Child with St. Anne.[d] [a] Madonna del Orto, Venice. [b] Uffizi Gallery, Florence. [c] Venice Academy. [d] The Louvre.