The "Virgin of the Rocks" (Plate III.), now in the National Gallery,
corresponds exactly with a painting by Leonardo which was described by
Lomazzo about 1584 as being in the Chapel of the Conception in the
Church of St. Francesco at Milan. This picture, the only _oeuvre_
in this gallery with which Leonardo's name can be connected, was
brought to England in 1777 by Gavin Hamilton, and sold by him to the
Marquess of Lansdowne, who subsequently exchanged it for another
picture in the Collection of the Earl of Suffolk at Charlton Park,
Wiltshire, from whom it was eventually purchased by the National
Gallery for L9000. Signor Emilio Motta, some fifteen years ago,
unearthed in the State Archives of Milan a letter or memorial from
Giovanni Ambrogio da Predis and Leonardo da Vinci to the Duke of
Milan, praying him to intervene in a dispute, which had arisen between
the petitioners and the Brotherhood of the Conception, with regard to
the valuation of certain works of art furnished for the chapel of the
Brotherhood in the church of St. Francesco. The only logical deduction
which can be drawn from documentary evidence is that the "Vierge aux
Rochers" in the Louvre is the picture, painted about 1482, which
between 1491 and 1494 gave rise to the dispute, and that, when it was
ultimately sold by the artists for the full price asked to some
unknown buyer, the National Gallery version was executed for a
smaller price mainly by Ambrogio da Predisunder the supervision, and
with the help, of Leonardo to be placed in the Chapel of the
Conception.
The differences between the earlier, the more authentic, and the more
characteristically Florentine "Vierge aux Rochers," in the Louvre, and
the "Virgin of the Rocks," in the National Gallery, are that in the
latter picture the hand of the angel, seated by the side of the Infant
Christ, is raised and pointed in the direction of the little St. John
the Baptist; that the St John has a reed cross and the three principal
figures have gilt nimbi, which were, however, evidently added much
later. In the National Gallery version the left hand of the Madonna,
the Christ's right hand and arm, and the forehead of St. John the
Baptist are freely restored, while a strip of the foreground right
across the whole picture is ill painted and lacks accent. The head of
the angel is, however, magnificently painted, and by Leonardo; the
panel, taken as a whole, is exceedingly beautiful and full of charm
and tenderness.