Online Paintings

The third important work of this period is the Virgin of the Rocks which was commissioned in Milan for the Confraternity of the Immaculate

The painting, to be done with the assistance of the de Predis brothers, was to fill a large complex altarpiece, already constructed Leonardo chose to paint an apocryphal moment of the childhood of Christ when the Infant John the Baptist, in protection of an angel, met the Holy Family on the road to Egypt.

The angel helping to the poor family.This picture revels the innocence of the poor family.

In this scene, as painted by Leonardo, John recognizes and worships Jesus as the Christ.

The painting demonstrates an eerie beauty as the graceful figures kneel in adoration around the infant Christ in a wild landscape of tumbling rock and whirling water.

While the painting is quite large, it is not nearly as complex as the painting ordered by the monks of St Donato, having only four figures rather than about fifty and a rocky landscape rather than architectural details.

The painting was eventually finished; in fact, two versions of the painting were finished, one which remained at the chapel of the Confraternity and the other which Leonardo carried away to France.

But the Brothers did not get their painting, or the de Predis their payment, until the next century.