The Virgin of the Rocks

Leonardo was asked in 1483 by a confraternity in Milan to paint the middle of their altarpiece. In a shadowy grotto the Virgin puts her arm round the infant John the Baptist, who kneels to the infant Christ; an angel looks out at us and points.

The plants growing from the rocks are painted so exactly that botanists can name them. A quarrel over the price followed, and Leonardo painted a second version, now in the National Gallery in London; this first one went to the kings of France. Stand before it in 3D ›