Katy Blatt, Leonardo da Vinci and the Virgin of the Rocks: One Painter, Two Virgins, Twenty-Five Years, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018.

Fig. 1. Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin of the Rocks, c.1483, oil on panel, 199x122 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris © Musée du Louvre, Paris, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Angèle Dequier.

Fig. 2. Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin of the Rocks, c.1491-9 and 1506-8, oil on poplar, 189.5x120 cm, National Gallery, London © The National Gallery, London.

Fig. 3. Ambrogio de Predis, An Angel in Red with a Lute, c.1495-9, oil on poplar, 118.8 x 61 cm, National Gallery, London.

Fig. 4. Andrea del Verrocchio (and workshop), The Baptism of Christ, c.1472-5, oil and tempera on panel, 152 x 180 cm, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Fig. 5. Leonardo da Vinci, The drapery of a kneeling figure, c.1491-4, brush and black ink with white heightening on pale blue prepared paper, 21.3 x 15.9 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 6. Leonardo da Vinci, Head of the infant St John the Baptist (section from the cartoon for The Virgin of the Rocks), c. 1482-83, 13.4 x 11.9 cm, metalpoint with traces of pen and ink and wash heightened with white on prepared paper, pricked for transfer, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Fig. 7. Leonardo da Vinci, “The Burlington House Cartoon” or The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist, c.1499-1500, charcoal (and wash?) heightened with white chalk on paper, mounted on canvas, 141.5 x 104.6 cm, National Gallery, London.

Fig. 8. Andrea del Verrocchio, Bust of Lorenzo de’ Medici, c.1478, polychrome terracotta, 65.8 × 59.1 x 32.7 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C.

Fig. 9. Donatello, David, c.1430, bronze, 158 cm, Museo Nazionale de Bargello, Florence.

Fig. 10. Cimabue, Maestà di Santa Trinita, c.1280, tempera on panel, 385 x 223 cm, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Fig. 11. Masaccio, The Holy Trinity, c.1427, fresco, 667 x 317 cm, Santa Maria Novella, Florence.

Fig. 12. Giotto di Bondone, Madonna Enthroned /Ognissanti Madonna, c.1306-10, 325 x 204 cm, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Fig. 13. Masaccio, Virgin and Child, c.1426, egg tempera on wood panel, 134.8 x 73.5 cm, National Gallery, London.

Fig. 14. Andrea del Verrocchio, Virgin and Child, c.1470, oil on poplar, 75.8 x 54.6 cm, Gemäldegalerie der Staatlichen Museen, Berlin.

Fig. 15. Enea Vico, The Academy of Baccio Bandinelli, c.1544, engraving, 30.6 x 43.8 cm, Metropolitan Museum, New York.

Fig. 16. Andrea del Verrocchio, David, c.1475, bronze, 125 cm, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

Fig. 17. Leonardo da Vinci, Drapery Study for a Kneeling Figure in Profil Perdu, c.1472-5, grey-brown wash, heightened with white, on linen, 8.3 x 19.2 cm, British Museum, London.

Fig. 18. Andrea del Verrocchio and workshop, The Baptism of Christ, c.1472, oil on panel, 177 cm x 151 cm, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Fig. 19. Leonardo da Vinci, Profile of a Warrior in a Helmet, c.1472, silverpoint drawing on white prepared paper, 28.7 x 21.1 cm, British Museum, London.

Fig. 20. Leonardo da Vinci, Portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci (with scroll and motto on verso), c.1474-8, oil on panel, 38.1 x 37 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.

Fig. 21. Leonardo da Vinci, Annunciation, c.1475, oil and tempera on panel, 98 cm x 217 cm, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Fig. 22. Leonardo da Vinci, The Madonna of the Carnation, c.1478-80, oil on panel, 62 x 47.5 cm, Alte Pinkothek, Munich.

Fig. 23. Leonardo da Vinci, The Benois Madonna, c.1478, oil on canvas, 49.5 cm x 33 cm, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

Fig. 24. Leonardo da Vinci, Adoration of the Magi, c.1481-2, tempera on panel, 246 x 243 cm, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Fig. 25. Ambrogio de Predis, Portrait of Ludovico Sforza, late 1400s, Castle Trivulzio Library.

Fig. 26. Giacomo del Maino and workshop, Altar of the Immaculate Conception, post-1495, polychrome and gilded wood, S. Maurizio, Ponte in Valtellina.

Fig. 27. Masaccio, The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, c.1425-7, fresco, 208 x 88 cm, Brancacci Chapel, Florence.

Fig. 28. Fra’ Filippo Lippi, The Annunciation, c.1450-53, tempera on panel, 68.6 x 152.7 cm, National Gallery, London.

Fig. 29. Giotto di Bondone, Anna and Joachim Meeting at the Golden Gate, completed in 1305, fresco, 185 cm x 199.9 cm, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua.

Fig. 30. Fra’ Filippo Lippi, Adoration in the Forest, 1459, oil on poplar, 127 × 116 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

Fig. 31. Leonardo da Vinci, A rocky ravine, c.1480–3, pen and ink on paper, 22 x 15.8 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 32. Leonardo da Vinci, Musician, c.1485-1490, oil on panel, 45 cm × 32 cm, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan.

Fig. 33. Leonardo da Vinci, Lady with an Ermine, c.1489-90, oil on panel, 54 cm x 39 cm, National Museum, Kraków, Poland.

Fig. 34. Roman Boy with a Goose, 3rd century BCE, marble, 53 cm, Galleria dei Candelabri, Vatican Museum, Rome.

Fig. 35. Ambrogio de Predis, Portrait of Bianca Maria Sforza, c.1493, oil on poplar, 51 x 32.5 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Fig. 36. Leonardo da Vinci, Underdrawings for the second Virgin of the Rocks, c.1496. Photographs held at the National Gallery, London.

Fig. 37. Leonardo da Vinci, Head of a Youth, c.1491-3, red chalk and pen and ink on paper, 25.2 x 17.2 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 38. Leonardo da Vinci, Studies for casting an equestrian monument (recto); Further casting studies, and lines of poetry (verso), c.1492-3, pen and ink with some notes in red chalk, 27.9 x 19.3 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 39. Leonardo da Vinci, A study for an equestrian monument, c.1485-90, metalpoint on pale blue prepared paper, 11.7 x 10.3 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 40. Leonardo da Vinci, The head of a youth in profile (Salai?), c.1510, red and black chalks on pale red prepared paper, 21.7 x 15.3 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 41. Leonardo da Vinci, A man tricked by Gypsies (recto); An inscription describing evil men (verso), c.1493, pen and ink, 26.0 x 20.5 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 42. Leonardo da Vinci, Studies of male figures, c.1480-1, pen and ink with metalpoint on paper, 27.7 x 20.9cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Fig. 43. Leonardo da Vinci, The layers of the scalp, and the cerebral ventricles, c.1490-92, pen and ink, and red chalk (recto) and pen and ink, discoloured white, and faded metalpoint (verso), 20.3 x 15.3 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 44. Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, c.1595-8, tempera on gesso, pitch and mastic, 460 cm x 880 cm, Santa Maria della Grazia, Milan.

Fig. 45. Giotto di Bondone, The Last Supper, c.1304-6, fresco, 200 x 185 cm, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua.

Fig. 46. Domenico Ghirlandaio, The Last Supper, 1480, fresco, 400 x 880 cm, Chiesa di Ognisanti, Florence.

Fig. 47. Leonardo da Vinci, The foetus in the womb (recto); Notes on reproduction, with sketches of a foetus in utero, etc. (verso), c.1511, pen and ink over red chalk and pen and ink, with some offset red chalk, 30.4 x 22.0 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 48. Leonardo da Vinci, Studies of the nervous system, c.1485-90, metalpoint (faded) and pen and ink on blue-grey prepared paper, 22.2 x 30.4 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 49. Leonardo da Vinci, Cross-sections of the leg, c.1485-90, metalpoint (faded) and pen and ink on blue-grey prepared paper, 21.3 x 30.0 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 50. Leonardo da Vinci, The cranium sectioned (recto); The skull sectioned (verso), 1489, pen and ink (recto); pen and ink over traces of black chalk (verso), 19.0 x 13.7 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 51. Leonardo da Vinci, The cranium (recto); Notes on topics to be investigated (verso), 1489, pen and ink, 18.8 x 13.9 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 52. Leonardo da Vinci, The skull sectioned (recto); The cranium (verso), 1489, pen and ink over black chalk, 18.8 x 13.4 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 53. Piero della Francesca, Resurrection of Christ, c.1465, Museo Civico, Sansepolcro.

Fig. 54. Leonardo da Vinci, Studies of human proportions, c.1490, pen and ink on paper, 14.6 x 21.8 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 55. Leonardo da Vinci, Vitruvian Man, c.1490, and Proportions of the arm, pen and ink with wash over metalpoint, 34.6 cm x 25.5 cm, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice.

Fig. 56. Leonardo da Vinci, Knot design (with around the central circle the words “Leonardi Academia” and in the centre “Vici”), c.1490-1500, engraving, 29 x 21 cm, British Museum, London.

Fig. 57. Leonardo da Vinci, Tetrahedron (illustration for Luca Pacioli’s book, On Divine Proportion), c.1496-8, pen and wash on paper.

Fig. 58. Leonardo da Vinci, Portrait of Isabella d'Este, 1499-1500, black and red chalk with stump, ochre chalk, white highlights, 63 x 46 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Fig. 59. Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, 1503-6, oil on poplar, 77 x 53 cm, Musée du Louvre.

Fig. 60. Leonardo da Vinci, Studies For The Heads Of Two Soldiers In “The Battle Of Anghiari”, c.1505, chalk on paper, 19.1 x 18.8 cm, Budapest, Szépmüséveszeti.

Fig. 61. Leonardo da Vinci, A male nude, and a partial study of the left leg, c.1504-6, red chalk (partly wetted) on red prepared paper, 22.6 x 16.7 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 62. Leonardo da Vinci, The muscles of the shoulder, torso and leg, c.1504-6, pen and ink, and red chalk, 16.1 x 15.3 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor.

Fig. 63. Raphael da Urbino, School of Athens, c.1511, fresco, 500 x 707 cm, Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Palace, Rome.

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Copyright notice: the figures above link to the site of origin for the images concerned. Copyright is generally held by the institution at which the art work is held. If there are any concerns regarding copyright, please contact the author.

2018: K. Blatt, Review of Waltar Isaacon's Leonardo da Vinci: The Biography, in N. Charney ed. The Journal of Art Crime, Issue 19, Spring 2018. https://www.dropbox.com/s/rg5fa71odi44wlw/Spring_2018_eEdition.pdf?dl=0

​2017: K. Blatt, Leonardo da Vinci and the Virgin of the Rocks: One Painter, Two Virgins, Twenty-Five Years, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017. (For links to illustrations and a summary of the book, go to www.virginoftherocks.com.)

 2017: K. Blatt, Reconstructing John Piper: Romantic, Ecologist, Land Artist: an essay as part of Orde Levinson’s anthology of Piper’s writings, "Hitting the Nail on the Head", Song Publishing, 2017.

 2016: K. Blatt, The Rebirth of Art History in Schools? Article published in VERSOPOLIS, European Review of Poetry, Books and Culture, 24 Oct. 2016. https://www.versopolis.com/times/opinion/239/the-rebirth-of-art-history-in-schools

 2014: The Virgin of the Rocks at the National Gallery; an holistic analysis of a single work for the International Baccalaureate School-Based Syllabus. Delivered in the National Gallery, London, as part of an International Conference for IB Teachers of History of Art, Oxford University, April 2014.

 2013: In Support of Art History: the neurological and long-term economic benefits of teaching and learning Art History in schools. Delivered at the Annual Association of Art Historians Conference, 2013, Reading University.

 2012: K. Blatt, Getting into Oxford & Cambridge, 2011 and 2012 entry (12th and 13th ed.) Trotman Publishing: 2011 and 2012. 

2008: K. Blatt (ed.), On Time: The East Wing Collection VIII, Courtauld Institute, 2008.

I am currently working on a book on the topic of Body Politics. Watch this space!

I am currently working on the first sustained art-historical study of the Birth Rites Collection, currently the only physical collection of contemporary art in the world devoted to the topic of childbirth. With holdings by globally renowned artists, it remains uncatalogued, existing on borders between the art world and medical teaching institutions.

In Britain today we face a mental health crisis for new mothers related to rising levels of birth trauma. Yet visualising birth in popular culture is often either a taboo or cliché, creating a dissonance with the diversity and depth of lived experience.

My analysis of the BRC will investigate the extent to which these artists have created a new visual culture of birth to reclaim women’s reproductive autonomy, meanwhile unsettling the discipline of feminist art history and offering a visual way into the indescribability of mother-becoming with broader implications for obstetric education.