1508, Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin of the Rocks -- National Gallery (London)
From the museum label: The Virgin holds out her hand above the Christ Child. Supported by an angel Christ blesses his cousin, the infant Saint John the Baptist, who can be identified by his cross and scroll. The rocky setting may refer to the world at the dawn of time, or to the desert in which Christ lived after his flight into Egypt, or both. In 1483, Leonardo and two Milanese painters were asked to gild and paint an altarpiece for the chapel of the Confraternity of the immaculate Conception in San Francesco, Milan, and to provide its main panel. Financial disputes with the confraternity caused Leonardo's first version of the composition (now in the Louvre, Paris) to be sold elsewhere and significantly delayed completion of this second version. Still unfinished in places, it was finally installed and paid for in 1508.
Link to a high-resolution close-up photo of details from this painting.
1508, Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin of the Rocks -- National Gallery (London)
From the museum label: The Virgin holds out her hand above the Christ Child. Supported by an angel Christ blesses his cousin, the infant Saint John the Baptist, who can be identified by his cross and scroll. The rocky setting may refer to the world at the dawn of time, or to the desert in which Christ lived after his flight into Egypt, or both. In 1483, Leonardo and two Milanese painters were asked to gild and paint an altarpiece for the chapel of the Confraternity of the immaculate Conception in San Francesco, Milan, and to provide its main panel. Financial disputes with the confraternity caused Leonardo's first version of the composition (now in the Louvre, Paris) to be sold elsewhere and significantly delayed completion of this second version. Still unfinished in places, it was finally installed and paid for in 1508.
Link to a high-resolution close-up photo of details from this painting.