This painting is an altar painting created by Leonardo da Vinci at the request of a religious group for a chapel in the San Francesco Church in Milan. This painting features the Virgin Mary in the center, with her right hand supporting the infant John the Baptist and her left hand sitting under the infant Jesus. An angel is behind Jesus, forming a triangular composition and responding to each other with gestures. The background is a deep rock cave, dotted with flowers and plants, and the cave is transparent and bright. Although this painting belongs to the traditional subject matter, its expression techniques and composition layout demonstrate the profound artistic level of Leonardo da Vinci. The subtle depiction of characters and backgrounds, the use of smoky brushwork, scientific realism, and the adoption of techniques such as perspective and reduction, indicate that he has reached a new level in dealing with the dialectical relationship between realistic realism and artistic processing.

The general theme of 'Our Lady of the Rock' depicts the Virgin Mary surrounded by prophets according to the wishes of the church, which is a general religious composition used by the sponsors of the Holy Relief Society to enhance the belief in the innocence of the Virgin Mary. Da Vinci's creation is completely a secular work quietly emerging in Florence, and everything on the screen reflects novelty: the artistic treatment of the plot; Unusual and elusive scenery; The organic integration of characters and environment; Clever utilization of light; A character image illuminated by noble beauty. The theme of this painting is the young Baptist John worshipping Christ in front of the Virgin Mary and angels. Leonardo da Vinci settled them in a beautiful and mysterious rock landscape, with the Virgin Mary, children, and angels sitting directly on the rocky ground. The gradually rising and falling light smoke and mist present a hazy painting style that is rare in Flemish or Venetian painting schools, and the entire scene is like a distant dream. Filled with poetic warmth, peaceful and elegant.
Screen background design
Although the characters in the painting are surrounded by a damp air, the contours of their bodies can still be clearly distinguished against the dim rocks, especially the mysterious atmosphere deliberately created by the painter's focus on depicting their faces. The gentle, gentle, and pure expressions of the characters are vividly highlighted. Strange shaped hanging stones hang down from the wet rock mass, and botanically accurate flowers and plants emerge from the crevices. Surprisingly, irises, silver lotuses, violets, and some ferns can be distinguished. The blue sky in the distance appears before people's eyes through the holes and crevices between the rocks. The young mother gently embraces the kneeling baby John with her gentle hand, while her other hand extends towards her son. The angel faces the audience, guiding them towards the painting and pointing to the scene with his fingers. A series of gestures represent protection, guidance, blessings, and other meanings. This group of characters is arranged according to the composition principle of a pyramid, with the head of the Virgin Mary at the top of the tower, her outstretched hands on the sides, and angels and babies at the bottom corner. Leonardo da Vinci regarded structure as the key to unlocking the intention of his work, which largely formed the classical pyramid like character composition of the Renaissance.

Harmonious visuals
In Da Vinci's stable and harmonious composition, scenery is no longer just a simple background. Realistic scenery surrounds the characters and blends naturally with them, giving the picture a unique and vivid feeling of realism. The creation of group portraits followed two universal principles at that time: first, there should be some kind of communication between the characters in the painting; Secondly, there should also be some kind of communication between the viewer and the subject being painted. The Louvre Museum has both collections, but London's collection only has one.

Character Profile
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was the most renowned artist, sculptor, architect, engineer, mechanic, scientific giant, literary theorist, philosopher, poet, musician, and inventor of the Italian Renaissance. He was born in the town of Finch on the outskirts of Florence and died in France. His father was a lawyer and notary, and his mother was a peasant woman. He came to Florence at the age of 15 and studied in Verrocchio's workshop. In 1472, he joined the painters' guild, and by the mid-1970s, his personal style had matured. He worked in Milan from 1482 to 1499, mainly serving the Duke of Milan and engaging in extensive artistic and scientific activities. 'Our Lady of the Rock' is his most famous representative work created during this period. He is a genius who is passionate about artistic creation and theoretical research, studying how to use lines and three-dimensional shapes to express various problems of form; On the other hand, he also studies natural sciences.
Learning process of painting
Da Vinci began learning art at the age of 15 in the workshop of painter A. del Verrocchio. Joined the Artists Guild in 1472. In the mid-1570s, my personal painting style gradually matured. From 1482 to 1499, he resided in France and engaged in other artistic and scientific activities in addition to serving the Duke of Milan. During this period, he did not produce many paintings, but "Our Lady of the Rock" and "The Last Supper" are his representative works. In 1500, he traveled to places such as Mantua and Venice. In 1506, he returned to Florence and created "The Virgin and Child with Santa Anna" and "Mona Lisa", and also began painting murals for the city hall. In 1507, he went to Milan again and served in the French court. He moved to Rome in 1513, then to France in 1516, and finally settled in Amboise. In his later years, he rarely painted and devoted himself to scientific research. When he passed away, he left behind a large number of notes and manuscripts, covering almost everything from physics, mathematics to biological anatomy. He did not complete many paintings in his lifetime, but each one is an immortal work. His works have a distinct personal style and are adept at combining artistic creation with scientific exploration, which is unique in the history of world art. The academic community generally divides their creative activities into two stages: the early stage and the peak stage.

The characteristics of sketching
In Leonardo da Vinci's artistic heritage, a large number of sketch works are also worthy of attention. These sketches, like his official works, have reached a very high level and are known as the epitome of sketch art. Its characteristics are: meticulous observation, balanced lines of hardness and softness, especially adept at using oblique lines with different degrees of density to express subtle changes in light and shadow. Each of his works is based on sketches. His artistic theory can be found scattered in over 5000 of his notes and unfinished "Essay on Painting," which is also a significant achievement in the theoretical research of the Renaissance era. Leonardo da Vinci was a famous painter of the Italian Renaissance and one of the most outstanding representatives of the entire European Renaissance. He is a thoughtful, knowledgeable, and versatile artist, sculptor, architect, engineer, mechanic, scientific giant, literary theorist, great philosopher, poet, musician, and inventor. He has made significant contributions in almost every field. Scholars of later generations called him the "most perfect representative of the Renaissance era", a "first-class scholar", and a "brilliant genius". He deserves all the praise, and even more.

Creative talent
Leonardo da Vinci is a symbol of human wisdom, holding a divine like infinite ideal, attempting to recreate the beauty of the world, measure the vastness of the world, and explain its mysteries. But he only has ordinary life and strength. His ambition is to discover everything, study everything, and create everything. His life is an unfinished road, littered with fragments of noble unfinished works. Before his death, he sadly said, "I have never completed a work in my life." Leonardo was born in the small town of Finch in the suburbs of Florence, so he was named Finch. At the age of 5, he was able to draw a portrait of his mother on the beach from memory, write lyrics and music on the spot, and sing with his own accompaniment, which impressed everyone present. Father Antonio, a lawyer, recognized his son's painting talent and decided to send him to study at the studio of Florentine artist Verrocchio. There, he not only received education in painting, sculpture, and architectural art, but also was influenced by other sciences. Finch once studied the relationship between light and dark changes in eggs at the Verrocchio Studio and discovered the technique of progressive light and dark painting. He spent 6 years at the Verrocchio Studio, growing into a model of human intelligence with modern scientific thinking and the courage to explore. Finch was unable to showcase his talents in Florence, and he was determined to bring his art and wisdom into the real world, shining brightly. At the age of 31, he wrote a letter to the Archduke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, listing his various talents. Finally, he expressed his desire to create a equestrian statue for the Archduke's father, which would become an unprecedented giant statue in the world. The master completed the earthen statue of this masterpiece at the age of 41, but due to insufficient copper casting, the masterpiece was never completed. It was destroyed during the French invasion in 1499, otherwise it would have been a great miracle in the world.

Artistic attainments
The Grand Duke's reward for his genius and hard work was not in gold coins, but in words of gold and jade, which made Finch very uneasy. In order to comfort him, the Grand Duke asked him to paint a painting for the cafeteria of the Gracci Monastery in Milan, which is called 'The Last Supper'. If 'The Last Supper' is the most famous religious painting in the world, then Leonardo da Vinci's' Mona Lisa ', which was created when he returned to Florence from Milan at the age of 51, is undoubtedly the most famous and greatest portrait painting in the world. These two globally acclaimed works have left Leonardo da Vinci's name in history forever. Da Vinci's unique artistic language is the use of light and shadow to create a three-dimensional sense of flat images. He once said, "The greatest miracle of painting is to create a sense of concavity and convexity in flat images." He used the principle of spherical bodies receiving light changes and pioneered the light dark transition method (also known as the gradual light dark transition method), which means that the transition from light to dark in the image is continuous, like smoke, without a clear boundary. The Mona Lisa is a masterpiece of this painting technique. Vasari believed that this shading technique was a turning point in the art of painting. Finch's life was always about exploring the noble temperament of art, and only in the creation of beauty can he feel satisfied. The pursuit and creation of science, reason, and beauty in 15th century Italy reached its peak thanks to Leonardo da Vinci. But the master's talent was not valued or appreciated in his later years, and the Pope's indifference made him very sad. In 1515, when King Francis I of France reoccupied Milan, he invited the master to settle in Kruburg, France and apply for the position of court painter. The master passed away in a foreign country in 1519 at the age of 67.

The first painting
The first painting was made around 1483-1490 and is an oil painting with a size of 198 × 123 centimeters. It is currently housed in the Louvre Museum in Paris. The plot on the painting is taken from the story of Jesus being baptized in Chapter 3 of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament of the Bible: Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River and met John to be baptized by him. John wanted to stop him and say, 'I should be baptized by you, but did you come to me instead?'? Jesus replied, 'Allow me for now, for it is our duty to fulfill all righteousness in this way.'. So John promised him. Jesus was baptized and immediately came up from the water. Suddenly, heaven opened for him, and he saw gods descending like doves and landing on him. At this moment, there was a voice in the sky saying, 'This is my beloved son.'. According to the Bible, John the Baptist was not a child, but an adult. When the Virgin Mary fled to Egypt and Israel with her children, Jesus was only a newborn baby and could not speak to John as depicted in the painting. In addition, the place where Jesus was baptized was by the Jordan River, and Mary was not present during the baptism. So why did Da Vinci make such bold changes?

The Bible says that King Herod slaughtered infants under the age of two on a large scale in the region where he was born in order to cut off the afterlife of Jesus. The angel inspired Joseph to flee Bethlehem with Mary and Jesus. The family of the Virgin Mary and the Son had just arrived at the Jordan River and learned that John was preaching in this area. They made an appointment to meet John in a nearby cave. It is also reasonable for painters to depict the characters in an ancient cave. The baptism of Jesus has never been clearly explained in the Bible regarding age relationships, and such themes are often conceived by painters with different expressions. The painting "The Baptism of Christ," in which Leonardo da Vinci collaborated with his teacher during his apprenticeship, clearly depicts the images of Jesus and John as adults. The painter is not limited by religious themes in this painting, but expresses this theme with a secular life emotion. [1] In order to fill the characters with a sense of familial love, he transformed this so-called sacred meeting between Jesus and John into two innocent children playing by the water's edge. But in order to clarify the religious theme, some annotations had to be made from the actions, such as Jesus pointing his right hand at John, as if saying, 'Allow me for now...'. John also made a gesture of bowing and greeting Jesus. The angel sitting on the ground on the right side, as a beautiful messenger who descended from heaven to earth, is depicted in the most beautiful way. Her face shows Da Vinci's smiling formula, and her right hand points to the amusing scene of baptism, seemingly protecting them like family. It is obvious that the painter here is determined to center around the Virgin Mary, endowing the painting with a solemn, gentle, and blessed motherly love appeal, rather than depicting some kind of hardship, hardship, and fear in life. The Virgin Mary in the middle supported John with one hand and comforted Jesus with the other, reflecting the great maternal power of humanity. This is completely different from his earlier painting 'The Baptism of Christ'. It embodies an ethical sentiment, a beauty rich in humanity, which was also the content of humanistic thought at that time.

The second one is on a wooden board and is now in the collection of the National Gallery of London. The second version modified Mary's seemingly sharp fingers, making the contours appear softer. It also removed the ambiguous pointing of Archangel Uli towards John, and Uli's face was no longer facing the audience, but towards the ongoing ceremony, appearing much softer. Some details such as the color of Mary's clothes were also slightly modified.
In this painting, there is a cool and watery wilderness where the young Baptist John worships the young Christ under the shade of the Virgin Mary's cloak. The angel on the right indicates the divine care for Jesus.
Due to the difficulty in distinguishing the two young children in the version currently housed in the Louvre, in this version from the National Gallery in the UK, Leonardo da Vinci added a recognizable cross on the plant to distinguish between the two young children, Saint John and Christ.
What was even more shocking was that scientists at the National Gallery in the UK used infrared technology to discover a sketch hidden in the remake of 'Our Lady of the Rock'. The painting depicts the Virgin Mary kneeling on the ground, her eyes fixed on the ground, one hand resting on her chest, and the other arm extending outward, with her fingers touching the edge of the frame. This painting is not yet completed, and experts believe that Leonardo da Vinci may have planned to paint the Holy Infant Jesus in front of her.

So why did Leonardo da Vinci ultimately give up on continuing this sketch and instead draw a copy of the previous' Our Lady of the Rock '? One explanation is that in 1483, the Roman Catholic Church commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint a painting of "Our Lady of the Rock" to decorate Milan Cathedral. Billie Lynch said, "After completing his first painting, Leonardo da Vinci was very satisfied with his work and wanted more financial rewards. After being rejected, he sold this painting privately and later painted another one. Perhaps the second painting started from a just completed sketch." This painting marked the beginning of Leonardo da Vinci's creative peak, and the one sold was the "Madonna of the Rocks" collected by the Louvre in Paris. However, after religious groups asked Leonardo da Vinci to return the work, he originally wanted to create a new work, but was opposed by religious institutions. They insisted on a work identical to the original work, so there was this "imitation" work collected in the British National Gallery. This may be one of the reasons why there is another sketch hidden in the second "Our Lady of the Rock".

Pyramid shaped composition
In terms of composition, Da Vinci used a pyramid shaped composition, which has a sense of stability. Four characters are unified in this stable structure. The pointed part happens to be the head of the Virgin Mary, and the left hand of Jesus and the hem of the angel's robe are the edges of the right contour of the tower. However, this tower shaped composition is not a very rigid symmetrical formula, with the Virgin Mary of the central character leaning slightly to the left, while the lower part of the tower shaped composition is close to a prism; John's head is slightly lower than the head of the angel on the opposite side, and the two corners are unbalanced. Due to the enhanced brightness of the background hole, their color contrast remains stable. The panoramic view appears both solemn and natural, with classical aesthetic features.
Rock structure
We should also pay attention to the background description of this painting: Leonardo da Vinci was not only an outstanding landscape painter, but more importantly, with the eyes of an explorer, he paid great attention to the rock structure inside this cave. The stalactites inside the cave were a subject of geological exploration for scientific researchers during the Renaissance period. This further reflects Leonardo da Vinci's extensive interest in geological knowledge. In all the frescoes of 15th century Italy, ordinary figures were always placed in front of the scenery rather than within it. Leonardo da Vinci first placed characters in specific landscapes here, blending their circumstances with the dark ancient caves into a whole. This was a creative idea by the great painter to seek typical environments and personalities in his conception. In terms of color tone, the entire painting is based on a brown color scheme, with the deep blue on the Virgin Mary contrasting with the purple, golden, and silver gray on the Angel's cloak; The skin of Jesus and John contrasts with John's golden curls. The dark cave allowed Leonardo da Vinci to use his best technique of contrast between light and dark

Implies and Symbols
The Virgin of the Rock is full of hints and symbols, showcasing Leonardo da Vinci's enigmatic spirit. What does it mean for an angel to point at St. John with a clear gesture? Does Saint John, protected by the Virgin Mary, represent humanity's need for the protection of the Holy Spirit? Does the cave depicted as resembling a uterus imply the origin of life? Scholars enthusiastically discuss these issues. However, Leonardo da Vinci himself, like all great painters, never explained the meaning behind his works. He believed that viewers would inevitably feel hidden meanings beyond words. Obviously, Leonardo da Vinci integrated his past learning experiences in this work.
Chapter 32 of the book "The Da Vinci Code" states: "The painting goes against common sense, depicting John praying for Jesus, not Jesus praying for John... Jesus is obeying John's authority! What's even more problematic is that Mary in the painting places one hand on John's head and makes a threatening gesture - her fingers look like eagle claws, as if they are holding an invisible head. The most obvious and spine chilling scene is the Uriel below Mary's bent fingers - he makes a chopping gesture, as if he wants to cut off the invisible head that Mary is holding from his neck." This shows that the implied meaning and symbolism of the painting are not simple.

Air perspective
The scenery outside the cave depicts air perspective, with the figures forming a pyramid structure, topped by the head of the Virgin Mary. The face of an angel expresses Leonardo da Vinci's ideal beauty, and its facial features do not appear on the surface like the angels in his painting of "The Baptism of Christ" for Verrocho, but emanate from within. The characters are depicted using the method of light and dark expression, and the technique has reached a state of perfection. This indicates that Leonardo da Vinci has bid farewell to the early Renaissance and begun to move towards the peak stage of the Renaissance.
tone
In terms of color tone, the second painting is based on brown, with the deep blue on the Virgin Mary contrasting with the purple, golden, and silver gray on the Angel's cloak; The skin of Jesus and John contrasts with John's golden curls. The dark cave allowed Leonardo da Vinci to use his best technique of contrast between light and dark. This kind of painting was originally used as an altar painting on a board, with screen paintings on both sides. As an unfinished work, it differs in character and color tone from the 1508 remake of 'Our Lady of the Rock'. In this latter picture, the character is brought closer and the angel's unnatural right hand pointing towards John has been changed; Her gaze was no longer directed towards the audience, but rather at the activities of the two children. From this perspective, it appears more mature than the previous one. But in terms of color, the deep blue cloak of the Virgin Mary has been changed to deep blue, and the red cloak of the angel has become winged. The color tone is not as warm as the previous one. Perhaps this was due to the painter's lack of energy in his later stages of painting, or it could have been painted by his disciples, but there is currently no reliable evidence to support this claim.