Sunday, December 5, 2010

Madonna of the Rocks, Leonardo


This painting of Madonna is unique for many reasons. First, the Baby Jesus is not being held in her lap or at her hip as he so usually is. Instead, he sits by himself, slightly supported by a heavenly angel in his perfect baby skin, yet giving the sign of a teacher, appearing wise despite his apparent infancy. Madonna is exceptionally beautiful. While this is not uncommon to make her exquisite, no one really does female faces like Leonardo. The light in general in this place is truly unique. The location as well is quite unfamiliar and undiscovered. Scholars tried to place the location, believing it to be inspired from an actual landscape in Leonardo's life because of its striking accuracy, and yet, no place as far as they can tell looks like this. It is now pretty must believed that Leonardo made the entire location up completely from his own creative imagination. 

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