Leonardo da Vinci | The Virgin of the Rocks | NG1093

About the work

Leonardo’s mysterious painting shows the Virgin Mary with Saint John the Baptist, Christ’s cousin, and an angel. All kneel to adore the infant Christ, who in turn raises his hand to bless them. They are crowded in a grotto overhung with rocks and dense with vegetation.

The painting was part of a large, elaborate altarpiece made for the church of San Francesco Grande, Milan to celebrate the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. It replaced a similar picture Leonardo made earlier (now in the Louvre, Paris).

Leonardo has used innovative painting techniques to give the impression that the figures are emerging from the darkness of this shaded setting. For example, he has blurred the edges of their forms to indicate the shadows that envelop them. The underdrawing (preliminary outlining of a composition) shows that he attempted a different design but later changed his mind so it is almost identical to the Louvre version.

Key facts

Full title: The Virgin with the Infant Saint John the Baptist adoring the Christ Child accompanied by an Angel ('The Virgin of the Rocks')
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Artist dates: 1452 - 1519
Part of the series: Panels from the S. Francesco Altarpiece, Milan
Date made: about 1491/2-9 and 1506-8
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 189.5 × 120 cm
Inscription summary: Inscribed
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1880
Inventory number: NG1093
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Henry Charles Howard, 18th Earl of Suffolk and 11th Earl of Berkshire
Frame: 15th-century Italian Frame with Later Additions

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

About the series: Panels from the S. Francesco Altarpiece, Milan

Leonardo da Vinci, 'The Virgin of the Rocks', about 1491/2-9 and 1506-8

These three panels all came from an elaborate, and partly sculpted, altarpiece that was made for the church of San Francesco Grande, Milan. By the time that Leonardo and his associates were commissioned to provide paintings in 1483, the sculptor Giacomo del Maiano had already finished the sculptures.

The altarpiece stood in a chapel devoted to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary that belonged to a confraternity (religious group) devoted to the Immaculate Conception. The two angels playing musical instruments probably stood on either side of a large sculpture of the Virgin. Leonardo’s painting, which was probably supposed to represent the Immaculate Conception, was placed directly beneath the sculpture.

The National Gallery’s painting is Leonardo’s second version of the picture. It was probably made to replace one (now in the Louvre, Paris) that Leonardo sold because the confraternity refused to pay him adequately for it.

The Virgin of the Rocks

Leonardo da Vinci

Not on display

An Angel in Green with a Vielle

associate of Leonardo da Vinci, possibly Francesco Napoletano

This angel was part of an elaborate painted and sculpted altarpiece made for the church for San Francesco Grande in Milan. The main image of the altarpiece was Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’, also in the National Gallery’s collection.This angel – playing a vielle, a type of fiddle...

Not on display

An Angel in Red with a Lute

Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis

This angel is a pair to another in the National Gallery’s collection. Both were part of a large altarpiece made for the church of San Francesco Grande in Milan that included Leonardo’s ‘Virgin of the Rocks’, which is also in our collection. They were made to surround a sculpture of the Virgin Mar...

Not on display