Virgin and Child with St Anne
Leonardo da Vinci,
Virgin and Child with St. Anne,
1510, oil on panel
This piece, painted in about 1510, was rumoured to have been commissioned by Louis XII to celebrate his daughter’s birth in 1499 but by the time da Vinci had finished the piece and was satisfied with it, it was too late.
Two women and a small infant child dominate the frame and are all seated in a very idealistic outdoor, natural setting. St Anne is seated centrally, her body covered by the Virgin Mary who sits on her lap leaning to the left of the composition to see to her child, the baby Jesus, playing with a lamb. The baby straddles the lamb with his legs around Mary’s knee height. The figures all gaze at one another leading the viewer’s eye also around the composition. This begins with St Anne who looks softly toward Mary who’s eyes are fixated lovingly upon her child, the baby Jesus then returns this look with a faint smile to take the viewer back to Mary.
The pyramidal composition also helps to take the viewer from the height of the pyramid to the base, which lay close to the bottom of the painting, from St Anne’s head to her feet. This shape is emphasized by the slant of Mary’s back on the left hand side of the composition and St Anne’s arm that rests on her hip.
Da Vinci has showed great use of atmospheric perspective in the far distance where a mountain range lies. The background recedes into a very pale blue to denote how vast the distance is between the foreground and background. This blue links aesthetically to Mary’s robe of a similar shade, a way to piece together the composition in a way to satisfy the eye of the viewer.
One major contrast lies between the background and foreground for a number of reasons. First of all the two settings seem very opposite, the foreground an earthy coloured natural setting painted using greens and browns, almost like the middle of the country with trees and shrubbery. Also the ground underneath the figures looks almost cracked
Virgin and Child with St. Anne,
1510, oil on panel
This piece, painted in about 1510, was rumoured to have been commissioned by Louis XII to celebrate his daughter’s birth in 1499 but by the time da Vinci had finished the piece and was satisfied with it, it was too late.
Two women and a small infant child dominate the frame and are all seated in a very idealistic outdoor, natural setting. St Anne is seated centrally, her body covered by the Virgin Mary who sits on her lap leaning to the left of the composition to see to her child, the baby Jesus, playing with a lamb. The baby straddles the lamb with his legs around Mary’s knee height. The figures all gaze at one another leading the viewer’s eye also around the composition. This begins with St Anne who looks softly toward Mary who’s eyes are fixated lovingly upon her child, the baby Jesus then returns this look with a faint smile to take the viewer back to Mary.
The pyramidal composition also helps to take the viewer from the height of the pyramid to the base, which lay close to the bottom of the painting, from St Anne’s head to her feet. This shape is emphasized by the slant of Mary’s back on the left hand side of the composition and St Anne’s arm that rests on her hip.
Da Vinci has showed great use of atmospheric perspective in the far distance where a mountain range lies. The background recedes into a very pale blue to denote how vast the distance is between the foreground and background. This blue links aesthetically to Mary’s robe of a similar shade, a way to piece together the composition in a way to satisfy the eye of the viewer.
One major contrast lies between the background and foreground for a number of reasons. First of all the two settings seem very opposite, the foreground an earthy coloured natural setting painted using greens and browns, almost like the middle of the country with trees and shrubbery. Also the ground underneath the figures looks almost cracked