Resources > Ask Jeff What about the Madonna of the Rocks? Posted by CCC CyberMinistries on May 10, 2006, 09:03

What about the Madonna of the Rocks?

DVC (intro) “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”

DVC (p.131-133) describes “a five foot tall canvas, [The Madonna of the Rocks]

DVC(p.138) “The painting showed a blue robed Virgin Mary sitting with her arm around an infant child, Baby Jesus. Opposite Mary sat Uriel, also with an infant, John the Baptist. Oddly though, rather than the usual Jesus blessing John scenario, it was the baby John who was blessing Jesus and Jesus submitting to his authority”

As a side note, the painting is 6 ˝ feet tall not including the frame

DVC says that the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception commissioned Leonardo to paint this painting and the nuns gave him instructions as to what the picture should contain. The nuns were extremely unhappy with the finished work and so Leonardo produced a second more pleasing work The Virgin of the Rocks…

The real story is that the Confraternity was an all male order and there were no nuns involved.

And in reality, Leonardo, for reasons known only to him, did not do what they had asked…so he redid it…

In the Virgin of the Rocks..the infant John the Baptist is holding the familiar reed with the cross that was often used in portraits of John the Baptist. The colors were surely different and some of the elements of the "Madonna" were left out as new things were added to the softer "Virgin of the Rocks"

Art historians agree that Jesus is being closely watched by the angel Uriel and that Jesus is the one giving the blessing to John

Below you can get a comparison to how close the pictures are...

The Madonna of the Rocks (the first picture is on the left) and The Virgin of the Rocks is on the right