The National Gallery had organised the exhibition within seven rooms, mainly in the Sainsbury Wing and also the Sunley Room of the Gallery. The organisation was impressive, tickets are time-based ensuring that the exhibition is not overcrowded allowing for close up viewing of the exhibits in a full, but not overcrowded environment. My own slot was for 6.
ROOM 1. This room provided a strong start to the exhibition, it contained paintings by Leonardo such as The Musician , opposite. Also known as Portrait of a young man it was revolutionary because of the sitters pose engaging with the viewer and breaking with the traditional strict profile portraiture favoured at the Court of Milan.
The pose of the sitter was much imitated by Leonardo's pupils such as Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio's painting Portrait of a young Man which was also displayed in Room 1. Also in this room were several excellent drawings by Leonardo and his followers so there was a lot of information to study and absorb. In my opinion Room 2 displayed two of the finest portraits ever painted in the history of art.
They are complete works from an artist who finished so very few of his paintings. Although the identity of La Belle Ferroniere is by no means clear another of Ludovico Sforza's mistress' Lucrezia Crivelli remains as a prime candidate. The unfinished painting of St Jerome right was the highlight of room 3. The oil on walnut panel depicts the saint as an old man holding a rock with which he is ready to beat his breast in penance. A typical Leonardo landscape fills the background and the overhanging rocks separate this from the barely sketched image of a church seen on the right of the painting.
There were also several anatomical studies in room 3. They highlight Leonardo's interest in the muscles of the neck, arms and legs, shown here together with St Jerome, these drawings are a testament to the artist's constant search for perfection in his art. I have been privileged to see both versions of the Virgin of the Rocks previously, the Louvre, Paris version right and the National Gallery, London version far right.
However, my viewing of these two works was separated by a gap of several years. This exhibition had brought the two paintings together in the same room for the first time ever.
It was an inspired decision by the organisers and allowed a close comparison of the paintings to be made in real time. Room 4 also contained sketches by Leonardo many showing his drawings in preparation for the Virgin paintings.
In The Virgin of the Rocks , the laws are nature's but the final creation Leonardo's. And he here defies the natural in many ways that cut across previous artistic assumptions. The result is organic rather than intellectual.
Other painters threw a deliberate schema over nature, seeing it in terms of conscious mingling, enriched by art, whereby buildings were allied to scenery, minor groups of figures enlivened background spaces, and objects were artistically re-arranged to mirror a cosmic order. This showed the artist's invention.
In this painting, Leonardo designs a grotto which is marvelous for seeming not human work at all. It appears the product of natural forces: the rocks ribbed and smoothed by the constant motion of water, present in the winding river but felt in the subaqueous light and as giving moisture for the plants - each recorded with botanical accuracy - that grow so thickly and yet are pallid.
It still seems a region untrodden by man, because the figures who kneel in the grotto have something of the same inevitable growing quality as the plants; they are no stranger in their setting, and there is no sense of their incongruity within it. The Virgin of the Rocks which usually hangs in the Louvre is considered by most art historians to be the earlier of the two and date from around Most authorities agree that the work is entirely by Leonardo.
It is about 8 cm 3 in taller than the London version. The first certain record of this picture is in , when it was in the French royal collection. It is generally accepted that this painting was produced to fulfill a commission of in Milan.
Visit us Plan your visit Floorplans Access Families. Exhibitions and events What's on now Exhibitions Events. Art and artists Search the collection Highlights from the collection Latest arrivals Picture of the month Contemporary residencies Latest stories. Search Entire website. Early years Painter, sculptor, architect, designer, theorist, engineer and scientist, Leonardo da Vinci created some of the most famous images in European art. Frustrated in Florence By , Leonardo had joined the brotherhood of Florentine artists, the Compagnia di San Luca, and he worked in Florence for the next ten years, but few paintings survive.
The notebooks Leonardo kept notebooks of his research into science, biology, anatomy, engineering and art. Final years Towards the end of his life, Leonardo was plagued by ill-health and a stroke left him paralysed down the right side of his body.
Paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. The Burlington House Cartoon. Leonardo da Vinci. Room The Virgin of the Rocks. 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 l An Angel in Green with a Vielle. Associate of Leonardo da Vinci Francesco Napoletano? This angel was part of an elaborate painted and sculpted altarpiece made for the church for San Francesco Grande in Milan.
This angel — playing a vielle, a type of fiddle The Virgin and Child.
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