What is the greatest unfinished masterpiece in art history?

Abandoned, interrupted, or still going after a century of scaffolding. Greatness here gets measured by what was left on the table.

1

The Adoration of the Magi

Leonardo abandoned this Florentine commission in 1482 at the underpainting stage and left for Milan.

2

Sagrada Família

Gaudí's Barcelona basilica, begun in 1882 and still under construction.

3

St Jerome in the Wilderness

Leonardo's gaunt saint, laid in as monochrome underpaint and never carried further.

4

The Sforza Horse

Leonardo's colossal equestrian monument: the clay model was shot at by archers and the bronze became cannon.

5

The Entombment

Michelangelo's panel in the National Gallery, left with bare patches of primed wood.

6

Rondanini Pietà

Michelangelo's last sculpture, still being cut days before he died at 88.

7

The Bride

Klimt's final canvas, left on the easel in 1918 with the underdrawing showing through.

8

Washington's unfinished portrait

Gilbert Stuart's Athenaeum head of George Washington — unfinished, and the face on the dollar bill.

9

The Tennis Court Oath

Jacques-Louis David's revolutionary group scene, abandoned as its subjects went to the guillotine.

10

The Battle of Anghiari

Leonardo's Florentine mural, ruined by his own wax experiment and lost behind a later wall.

11

The Gates of Hell

Rodin worked on this doorway for 37 years and never delivered it in his lifetime.

12

Crazy Horse Memorial

A South Dakota mountain carving begun in 1948 and still decades from completion.