The Virgin of the Rocks

Follow Mary’s hands across the group. One arm protects the young John the Baptist, while her other hand hangs above the infant Christ. Christ raises his hand to bless John. An angel supports him from behind. The figures communicate through small gestures within their shared enclosure. Leonardo da Vinci made the painting for an altarpiece in the church of San Francesco Grande in Milan. Work on this London version extended from about 1491 to 1508. It replaced an earlier painting of the same subject, now in the Louvre. The rocky foreground opens onto pale water and distant blue mountains. Softer edges and cooler colour make those mountains seem farther away. Around the faces, gradual changes between light and shade give forms a gentle, blurred boundary. That effect became known as sfumato. Notice how those two treatments work together. The landscape seems to continue far beyond the figures, while shadow keeps the people close within the grotto. Both effects depend on Leonardo’s careful study of how we see.