Leonardo da Vinci, painter of symbolic Mariology

In the work “Our Lady of the Pomegranate or Dreyfus“, Leonardo seeks a new concept of illumination, resulting from careful study.

Also attributed by critics to Lorenzo di Credi, it reinforces the idea that it was common practice in a workshop to use the same studies to create paintings, which became testing grounds for students’ capabilities.

The two figures, though they display great tenderness and loving intentions, do not seem well related to each other.

The Virgin seems to look at the pomegranate, and the Child offers his Mother a part of the fruit he has just picked. The chromatic harmony is achieved through a variant of red that complements a soft blue.

The Virgin’s face emerges from a dark background, probably a wall, between two rectangular windows that open onto a landscape typically Leonardian.

In the work “Our Lady of the Clover“, painted during the years when the artist actively collaborated with Verrocchio, light penetrates through both grilled windows in the background, enveloping the Virgin and Child in a warm chromatic embrace.

## Architectural Space and Artistic Mastery in Leonardo da Vinci’s “Madonna Benois”The architectural space is exquisitely orchestrated, and the elegant graded windows display a landscape with mountains arranged in three levels of depth, receding into the distance through the skilled use of color and “aerial perspective.”The Mother offers a rose to the Child Jesus. This work was painted for Florentine Pope Clement VII, Lorenzo the Magnificent’s nephew.Leonardo created a jar filled with water and flowers inside. Beyond the marvel of its vibrancy, he mimicked the dew from the water above, making it appear more alive than the actual vivacity.The two figures of Mother and Son in the *Madonna Benois*, constructed on oblique and opposing spatial lines, are skillfully connected by a small flower serving as a gestural link.[Image: Fig-11](https://locusmariologicus.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Fig-11.jpg)The vivacity of the Child lifting his leg, conveying a sense of restlessness, the exquisite rendering of their hands, the Mother’s satisfied smile, are elements of truth that make the scene intimate and familiar. The use of color, modulated in tones, and warm light create a subtle and soft outline around the figures, bringing them to life within the atmospheric space they inhabit.[Image: Fig-12](https://locusmariologicus.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Fig-12.jpg)It is the Child’s expression of absorbed wonderment on his face. His attentive eyes carefully observe not so much the flower the Mother offers (the cruciform flower, a symbol of Passion), but the same stem’s bright berries reflected in her motherly brooch, hinting at the heraldic symbolism of the Medici family.

It is likely that Leonardo painted the work *”Our Lady of the Cat”* at the same time, given the strong compositional correlation between its drawings and *”Our Lady of the Clove”*. Both were conceived within a vaulted space with a small arched window in the background. Dominant in these studies is a melodic sense of sign, executed with rapid rhythm, finding their most delightful expression in the charming drawing of a girl standing in profile, carrying a child in her arms.

A small *Annunciation*, now in the Louvre, has often been attributed to Lorenzo di Credi, a suave disciple of Verrocchio, enveloped in a religious silence always delicate in the monotonous purity of his paintings, far from the anxious inquisitiveness of Leonardo’s spirit.

The artist’s hand can be seen in the hazy landscape backgrounds and in the meticulous description of small flowers, investigating their stamens and pistils.

The veiled village corresponds to Mary’s prayerful gesture, bent in prayer, which is a commentary and echo of the scene in the mutability of shadows, in the mists of dawn that subtract contours.