The National Gallery
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) is one of the towering figures of western art.
Born in humble circumstances, Leonardo ended his life as 'first painter and engineer' to the French King Francis I. His achievements as an artist, architect, designer, theorist, engineer and scientist are little less than astonishing. Though many of his works were never finished, Leonardo influenced generations of artists. Leonardo trained as a painter and sculptor in the Florentine workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio.
There he perfected the exceptional talent for drawing that was key to his artistic and intellectual endeavours.
In 1483 Leonardo moved to Milan, ruled by Duke Ludovico Sforza, hoping to find work as an engineer and scientist. Yet his first Milanese commission was a painting, The Virgin of the Rocks. It was conceived as the central panel of an altarpiece for the chapel of the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, attached to the church of San Francesco. For reasons that remain unclear, the confraternity rejected Leonardo`s first painting (now in the Musee du Louvre, Paris). The National Gallery`s version of The Virgin of the Rocks, begun in the early 1490s, was only completed between 1506 and 1508. Two more paintings from the immaculate Conception altarpiece, by associated of Leonardo, are displayed in this room.
Leonardo left Milan in 1499, shortly after French troops invaded the cty, and returned to Florence. The Burlington Hose Cartoon dates to this turbulent period. Leonardo is known to have made several life-size works on paper (often called cartoons), but this in the only such drawing to survive. It will have been made in preparation for a painting, but Leonardo probably viewed it as a work of art in itself. Huge crowds flocked to see similar cartoon by Leonardo, when it was put on public display in Florence in 1501.
The Virgin of the Rocks, about 1491/2-9 and 1506-8
The Christ Child, seated to the right and supported by an angel, blesses his cousin, the infant Saint John the Baptist; the latter, who can be identified by his cross and scroll, in turn folds his hands in prayer. The Virgin further connects the two by holding out one hand above Christ, her Son, while touching Saint John`s shoulder with another.
This impressive, large painting is a highly original interpretation of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, which was the subject of the altarpiece to which the work belonged. It entailed the belief that through born of human parents, Christ`s mother was preserved from all stain of original sin. Mysterious by its nature, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin was much debated, and posed a particular challenge to artists in visualizing it By shwing the Virgin as an image of almost supernatural beauty, surrounded by a landscape that appears untouched by human hands - a natural yet also idealized world - Leonardo`s creation emphasises the Virgin`s role as the perfect intermediator for Mankind. the rocky setting that is referenced in the work`s popular title may in addition refer to the world at the dawn of time, to the desert in which Christ lived after his flight into Egypt, or both.
Andrea del Verrocchio about 1476-78.
Andrea del Verrocchio was one of the leading artists of late 15th-century Florence. He is mainly celebrated as a sculptor, though a number of important painters trained in his studio, including Leonardo da Vinci.
