Bernardino Luini, 'The Virgin and Child with Saint John', probably late 1510s

The Virgin Mary sits in the shelter of a rocky grotto. The infant John the Baptist, wearing his traditional camel skin, clasps his hands in prayer and kneels before Christ, who raises his right hand, perhaps to make the sign of the cross over his cousin. The Virgin looks at us as she gently draws the children to her. Figures move about the distant rocky landscape, through which a wide river meanders past a town towards distant blue mountains.

The plants growing in the foreground, painted in botanical detail, are native to northern Italy and probably all have a symbolic Christian significance – lupin, dandelion, columbine, wheat and violet. Flowers were often used in paintings to suggest particular qualities and their meanings would have been familiar to a contemporary audience. Wheat is a symbol for those who believe in Christ, columbine symbolises the Holy Ghost, the dandelion represents Christ’s Passion (his torture and crucifixion) and the violet is a symbol of humility. The pinks or carnations growing in the rocks beside the Virgin are also symbolic of Christ’s Passion, the ivy of his everlasting life and resurrection. The flower beside the Virgin’s face appears to be white campion, which may symbolise her purity.

This is an early work by the Milanese painter Luini. He was deeply influenced by Leonardo da Vinci, who was working in Milan from about 1482 to 1499. The figure of the Virgin and the infant Baptist as well as the rocky backdrop seem to be derived, although inverted and with variations, from Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks. Symbolic flowers were also prominently included in Leonardo’s painting. It is possible that The Virgin of the Rocks was being completed in Leonardo’s studio in Milan between 1506 and 1508, when Luini may have seen it. However it is unlikely that Luini’s own painting is of such an early date.

There is another version of this composition by Luini in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In that picture the Virgin looks down towards Christ and the distant landscape includes a gatehouse over a river. The flowers are mostly positioned beside the Virgin’s head, suggesting that they symbolise her qualities. Technical examination of the National Gallery’s picture reveals several changes were made during painting. The position of Saint John’s head has been moved; it was once inclined towards the Virgin in a position closer to that in the Fogg Art Museum’s version. There are other small changes to the figure of the Baptist, the most noticeable being in the position of the hands.