
Painter, sculptor, engineer, architect, botanist, inventor - Leonardo da Vinci was many things, but a fast worker wasn't one of them. As his patrons frequently complained, it was unusual for him to finish even one painting. So how did it happen that he completed two versions of the very same picture, his strange and dream-like Virgin of the Rocks? It's a question that has inspired numerous conspiracy theories, and now, for the first time, the two paintings will hang alongside each other, something even the artist himself would never have gazed upon. Together they will form part of Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan, a new National Gallery exhibition which will be the most extensive display of Leonardo's paintings ever staged. And, no doubt, inspire numerous more conspiracy theories.
But how did the artist come to paint his Virgin in the first place? In 1483, aged 30, da Vinci had arrived in Milan from Florence. He was armed with a formidable artistic reputation, yet dogged by financial worries. He longed to forge a working relationship, as court artist, with the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, but the latter was at this point too busy waging war against the Venetians.
Comment: Read The True Identity of Fulcanelli and The Da Vinci Code by Laura Knight-Jadczyk to learn more about the secrets hidden in Leonardo da Vinci's work.