The sitters are Gabriel Vendramin, the collector of works of art, Andrea Vendramin (died 1547), & the latter's seven sons. The reliquary of the True Cross on the altar still exists. It was presented to an earlier Andrea Vendramin, Guardian of the Scuola ...

The Virgin is seated on a wooden bench in front of a large wicker firescreen, the shape of which suggests a halo, & appears to have been nursing the infant Christ. She is shown as the Queen of Heaven in her palace. Her richly ornamented dress, precious ...

The figures have been identified as the Virgin Mary (top right) with apostles & the evangelists. This, along with four other panels showing respectively, ' Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven', ' The Forerunners of Christ with Saints & Martyrs', ' Th ...

An elaborate sculpted altar was commissioned by the Milanese Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception for their oratory in San Francesco in 1480. A new contract was drawn up in 1483 with Leonardo & the de Predis brothers: a central panel was to be painted by Leonardo alone, & there were to be two side panels showing angels singing & playing musical instruments. Two paintings of angels (' An Angel in Green with a Vielle' & ' An Angel in Red with a Lute') by artists influenced by Leonardo, are undoubtedly those for the altarpiece. ' The Virgin of the Rocks' seems not to refer to the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, but depicts the type of subject that Leonardo might have painted in his native Florence where legends concerning the young Saint John the Baptist were popular. It was twenty five years until a painting of this subject was finally placed in the chapel. In the interim, Leonardo had painted two versions of the composition: the first (in the Louvre) probably sold in the 1490s to a private client after a financial wrangle with the Confraternity; & a replacement,
- the painting that now hangs in the National Gallery
- that was never finished despite some help from his studio, but was installed in the chapel in 1508. Your Virgin of the Rocks print will use the latest cleaned version of the image.

...

An elaborate sculpted altar was commissioned by the Milanese Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception for their oratory in San Francesco in 1480. A new contract was drawn up in 1483 with Leonardo & the de Predis brothers: a central panel was to be painted by Leonardo alone, & there were to be two side panels showing angels singing & playing musical instruments. Two paintings of angels (' An Angel in Green with a Vielle' & ' An Angel in Red with a Lute') by artists influenced by Leonardo, are undoubtedly those for the altarpiece. ' The Virgin of the Rocks' seems not to refer to the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, but depicts the type of subject that Leonardo might have painted in his native Florence where legends concerning the young Saint John the Baptist were popular. It was twenty five years until a painting of this subject was finally placed in the chapel. In the interim, Leonardo had painted two versions of the composition: the first (in the Louvre) probably sold in the 1490s to a private client after a financial wrangle with the Confraternity; & a replacement,
- the painting that now hangs in the National Gallery
- that was never finished despite some help from his studio, but was installed in the chapel in 1508. Your Virgin of the Rocks print will use the latest cleaned version of the image.

...

The ' Wilton Diptych' was painted as a portable altarpiece for the private devotion of King Richard II, who ruled England from 1377 to 1399. The diptych is thought to have been made in the last five years of Richard's reign, although its artist remains unknown. It is called The Wilton Diptych because it came from Wilton House in Wiltshire, the seat of the Earls of Pembroke. A diptych is a painting, carving or piece of metalwork on two panels, usually hinged like a book. The panels of the Wilton Diptych are made from North European oak, but have been transformed by immaculate painting & gilding, into a heavenly vision. On the inside, Richard II is presented by three saints to the Virgin & Child & a company of eleven angels. ...

Mars, god of war, was one of the lovers of Venus, goddess of love. Here Mars is asleep & unarmed, while Venus is awake & alert. The meaning of the picture is that love conquers war, or love conquers all. This work was probably a piece of bedroom furniture, perhaps a bedhead or piece of wainscoting, most probably the 'spalliera' or backboard from a chest or day bed. The wasps ('vespe' in Italian) at the top right suggest a link with the Vespucci family, though they may be no more than a symbol of the stings of love. A lost Classical painting of the marriage of Alexander & Roxana was described by the 2nd-century Greek writer, Lucian. It showed cupids playing with Alexander's spear & armour. Botticelli's satyrs may refer to this. Mars is sleeping the 'little death' which comes after making love, & not even a trumpet in his ear will wake him. The little satyrs have stolen his lance
- a joke to show that he is now disarmed.
...

Mars, god of war, was one of the lovers of Venus, goddess of love. Here Mars is asleep & unarmed, while Venus is awake & alert. The meaning of the picture is that love conquers war, or love conquers all. This work was probably a piece of bedroom furniture, perhaps a bedhead or piece of wainscoting, most probably the 'spalliera' or backboard from a chest or day bed. The wasps ('vespe' in Italian) at the top right suggest a link with the Vespucci family, though they may be no more than a symbol of the stings of love. A lost Classical painting of the marriage of Alexander & Roxana was described by the 2nd-century Greek writer, Lucian. It showed cupids playing with Alexander's spear & armour. Botticelli's satyrs may refer to this. Mars is sleeping the 'little death' which comes after making love, & not even a trumpet in his ear will wake him. The little satyrs have stolen his lance
- a joke to show that he is now disarmed.
...

Friedrich combined landscape motifs with religious symbolism, & this picture represents the hope for salvation through the Christian faith. In the foreground a crippled man has abandoned his crutches & sits against a rock with his hands raised in prayer before a crucifix. The rocks & evergreen trees may be interpreted as symbols of faith, & the visionary Gothic cathedral emerging from the mist evokes the promise of life after death. There is a second version of this picture in the Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Dortmund. ...

The portrait is an early work by Moroni, probably of the later 1550s, & from the Avogadro collection in Brescia. The soldier represented is probably one of the sons of Gerolamo Avogadro, the likely sitter in Moretto's full-length portrait of 1526, which is in the National Gallery Collection (' Portrait of Man'). As in other early Moroni portraits the ruined setting may be intended to highlight the endurance of the virtues which the sitter represents. Moroni makes little outward attempt to idealise his subject, who is shown as a relatively frail figure against a background of crumbling architecture & with armour laid out at his feet. A helmet decorated with festive plumes is given prominence on the ledge to the right. A brace on the soldier's left leg, the 'piede ferito' (wounded foot) that gives the painting its popular title, may indicate a wound sustained in a battle or a joust, or a congenital deformity. ...