With masterpieces spanning every era and genre of art from magical medieval altarpieces to the avant-garde 20th-century experiments of the post-impressionists, few museums in the world can match the artistic riches of London’s National Gallery. The venerable Trafalgar Square institution is particularly strong on Italian Renaissance painting, and boasts works from the hands of practically every major artist from the 15th and 16th centuries. This week on our blog we’re rounding up some of our favourites; although you could easily spend days in the National Gallery getting to grips with the Renaissance, from Leonardo to Michelalngelo and Botticelli, we think these are a good starting point!
Leonardo da Vinci – The Virgin on the Rocks
Leonardo da Vinci is for good reason considered to be the Renaissance man par excellence, equally at home in the arts as he was in the sciences, happily mixing technological innovation with deep learning and a profound humanist spirit. London’s National Gallery is fortunate to be in possession of one of the artist’s most famous works, and one of the few large paintings by Leonardo’s hand to have survived to the present day. This is the Virgin on the Rocks, one of two versions of the subject that the artist would paint (the other is now in the Louvre in Paris).
The panel was originally intended as part of an altarpiece for the Milanese church of San Francesco Grande, commissioned by a confraternity dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. The composition features Mary surrounded by an infant Christ, John the Baptist and an angel, all apparently engaged in a profoundly spiritual but silent union: the baby Jesus raises his fingers in benediction as John the Baptist clasps his hands in awed prayer. Mary has one hand around the Baptist’s shoulder, whilst the other extends outwards from the picture plane in a virtuoso demonstration of perspective. The angel, meanwhile, captured in profile, is one of the most beautiful figures in all of art.
The tender, silent moment unfolds in a strange rocky landscape filled with minutely detailed plants, flowers and geological formations – evidence of the young Leonardo’s profound interest in the natural world. The landscape is suffused with a strange light that seems to make it extend infinitely backwards in space – this is thanks to the use of a technique known as aerial perspective, an innovation of Leonardo that would be widely adopted by Renaissance artists in the decades to come. Another revolutionary technique known as sfumato – in which colours are very gradually blended together to subtly blur contours – adds to the enigmatic nature of the scene.