English version edited by: Michel van Roon
There is not one painting by Leonardo da Vinci that doesn’t hide one or more secrets, secrets disguised within the skilled brushstrokes of the genius from Florence. As a result much of his paintings have triggered the imagination of researchers and writers around the world.
But none more than the Virgin of the Rocks, a painting which history is muddled since its mysterious origin.
The Virgin of the Rocks is a painting that was commissioned to Leonardo on April 25th, 1483 by the secular Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. Objective was for the paining to be placed in the Church of San Francesco Grande in Milan, now destroyed. The painting, according to scholars, was the first official contract Leonardo received since his move to Milan a few months before.
The contract, which also involved the De Predis brothers, two local painters with whom Leonardo had found his initial lodging upon his arrival in Milan, prescribed that work should be created as a triptyque, a work in 3 parts: a center-piece to be made by Leonardo involving the Madonna before God surrounded by a group of angels and two side-panels to be made by the De Predis brothers, showing 4 angels per panel, one where the angels are singing and the other where they are playing music.
There is no consensus amongst scholars why Leonardo disregarded this contract by the Brotherhood, nor is there a commonly shared opinion regarding the hypothetical but improbably attempt by Leonardo and his fellow painters to extort the Brotherhood out of more money. The only element where there is consensus on is that the original version of the work was never delivered to the Brotherhood and that after a long dispute a second version of the work was delivered...
