Sometimes even a Renaissance man needs to clean up. Yesterday, London’s National Gallery rehung Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic “The Virgin of the Rocks” after putting the painting through an 18-month cleaning.
A glossy varnish applied to the work around 1948 was removed because it had been to yellow, crack and overshadow some of the artist’s subtle shading technique known as “sfumato,” according the museum. The “Virgin” also got a new gilded frame that includes cornice portions from a 1500 Italian frame.
Curators also used the time to further study the work and have concluded that the entire piece was created by Da Vinci alone, rather than with help from assistants as some scholars previously asserted. Their findings will be published in a museum bulletin next fall.
Scholars have long agreed that the work is a masterpiece. In 1483, the Milanese Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception asked Da Vinci to paint a work for their chapel’s altarpiece, but it took the artist 25 years to deliver the final product.
The work focuses on a legend in which Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, introduces her infant son to a toddler John the Baptist. Christ is shown on the right, his hand giving a gesture of blessing. An earlier version of the same work now hangs in the Louvre; the National Gallery bought this version in 1880.
