Leonardo: The Virgin of the Rocks (One Painting, One Story)

Special Gallery price £10.00 - RRP: £12.99

The Virgin of the Rocks is exceptionally rare: it is one of just a handful of completed large-scale paintings by Leonardo da Vinci to survive. The work was first commissioned as an altarpiece soon after he arrived in Milan in the 1490s but took him a quarter of a century to finish. As such, it charts the development of the artist's thinking over time, including his fascination with the science of perception, geology, anatomy and new painting techniques.

Here Leah Kharibian tells the story of this Renaissance masterpiece. She takes us on a journey from fifteenth-century Italy to the National Gallery in London, exploring the rich history of this innovative artwork.

Author

Leah Kharibian is an independent art historian, writer, filmmaker and broadcaster on art. She has worked with the National Gallery since 1991, producing books for general readers on Leonardo and Velázquez, as well writing exhibition texts for many of the Gallery’s most celebrated shows, including the 2011 Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan.