Stunning New Images of a Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Virgin of the Rocks’ Have Revealed Underdrawings of an Entirely Different Composition

The National Gallery of London has released revelatory new
images of one of its most beloved masterpieces, Leonardo da Vinci’s
The Virgin of the Rocks (1491–99, 1506–08), showing
underdrawings beneath the surface of the work that depict an
entirely different composition.

The museum has known since 2005 that Leonardo reworked the
nearly six-foot tall, oil-on-panel painting, having examined
it using infrared reflectography. Now, thanks to newer
technology, these underdrawings can be seen more clearly.

There are actually two distinct underdrawings in the work. One
hews fairly closely to the final composition, but does not show the
baby Jesus in profile, as he appears in the final painting; the
other is a completely different design and depicts the Virgin Mary
kneeling over the baby Jesus as an angel looks over his
shoulder. 

Leonardo used a zinc-based pigment in his sketches, which was
detected using macro x-ray fluorescence maps. The painting was also
analyzed with hyperspectral imaging. The work underwent an 18-month
restoration beginning in 2008, returning to view in
2010.

You’ll be able to learn more about these findings in a flashy
new exhibition titled “Leonardo: Experience a Masterpiece,” which
opens in November. It promises an “immersive experience” of the
painting.

The exhibition “will allow visitors to explore the fascinating
layers of this iconic masterwork in an immersive way,” Richard
Slaney, the managing director of 59 Productions, the
company hired to produce the exhibition, said in a statement.
Slaney also described the show as the National
Gallery’s “first digital-led experience.”

The company’s previous projects have included the video design
at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, the creative
direction for the blockbuster “David Bowie Is”
exhibition at London’s
Victoria & Albert
Museum, and the digital transformation of the Washington
Monument into a Saturn V rocket for last month’s 50th anniversary of the
Apollo 11 moon landing.

The four-room National Gallery exhibition will attempt to
recreate churchgoers’ original experience of Leonardo’s masterpiece
with a mock-up of a chapel at the San Francesco Grande church in
Milan, for which it was painted. (The National
Gallery’s Virgin of the Rocks is Leonardo’s second
version of the composition; the first, from 1483, belongs to the
Louvre in Paris.)

In addition to showcasing details about Leonardo’s scientific
studies, which helped him understand and accurately depict light
and shadow, the show will present conservators’ recent discoveries
about the painting.

Other easy-to-miss details that will be highlighted in the
upcoming exhibition include fingerprints on the cheek of the Virgin
Mary, from where the artist, or one of his assistants, smoothed out
layers of paint. The fingerprints have been captured in
high-resolution photographs.

The show will round out a year’s worth of
exhibitions
commemorating the 500th anniversary of
the great Renaissance master’s death.

“Leonardo: Experience a Masterpiece” will be on view at the
National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, November 9,
2019–January 12, 2020.

The post Stunning New Images of a Leonardo da Vinci’s
‘Virgin of the Rocks’ Have Revealed Underdrawings of an Entirely
Different Composition appeared first on artnet News.