Leonardo da Vinci and the luminosity of Mary’s womb

Around 1481, the monks of San Donato Convent in Scopeto commissioned Leonardo with an Adoration of the Magi, now at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Leonardo depicts the shock of joy humanity feels upon the coming of the Redeemer, a wave of ardor for God.

The Baby Jesus radiates light, seated in his Mother’s womb.

The wise men approach with sacred fear, sensing his supernatural greatness.

The shepherds, transfigured by enthusiasm, seem to come from distant worlds. In the background are ruins of arches and palaces, a sign of defeated paganism, and among the ruins is the new humanity that embraces the good news.

The hut is gone. The donkey and ox disappear. For the Virgin Mother, the structure forms a niche and accommodates the multitude moved by the light that emerges from the shadows of evening.

## The Adoration of the Magi: A Visual Analysis**From the Devout Joseph, the Magi and Shepherds:** Every line of the raised heads, every strand of hair, every outstretched hand is a flame, a wavering fire that extends and coils in shadows: a flash of light that has paused within the splendor of Mary’s fire, in the midst of the group.**Nighttime Effect:** The effect is heightened on the right, where figures bend, stretch, and twist, infinitely varying the flicker of lights.**Between Mary and the Swaying Crowd:** A shadow gap exists between the Virgin holding the Child in her arms and the restless crowd. A single king stands offering his gift at the edge of a circle forming an aura around Mary, while only another king advances prostrated, kissing the earth within the sacred space.**Background Elements:** Bushes swaying in the wind, horses, and suspended ruins form the backdrop.## **Leonardo in Milan**The *Adoration of the Magi* remained unfinished by Leonardo due to his departure for Milan. Upon arrival, the artist was immediately commissioned on numerous projects for the court, from the equestrian monument of Francesco Sforza to decorations for the Sala delle Asse at the Castle, portraits of Duke Ludovico il Moro’s lovers, costumes and sets for festivities, canal construction, and military works. The master had little time for small devotional paintings, and pressing commissions were largely handled by his numerous students who executed them using his old drawings as models.Additionally, he had promising students: Marco d’Oggiono, Giovanni Boltraffio, Ambrogio de Predis, and Francesco Galli, known as the “Neapolitan” due to his origins. And this last one would be the material interpreter of *Our Lady Litta*, which clearly echoes London’s Virgin of the Rocks and repeats the pattern: the Virgin’s and the Child’s positions, almost identical to the work in London, and very similar elements such as the windows, the grey stone parapet, and the landscape.*Our Lady Litta* is a symbol of the universal and intimate dialogue of a Mother, the Mother par excellence, who fills her Child, the Son of Man, with tenderness and love, reminding us of the sweet bond that binds them beyond time and space.Beautiful painting, embellished by a deeply human scene even in its sanctity, with clear colors. Leonardo was 38 years old when he decided to paint *Our Lady Nursing the Child*. He had recently settled in Lombardy, at the Court of the Visconti, for whom he also organized impressive architectural and road works, such as the ingenious and complex group of Navigli, navigable canals that, starting from the Ticino River, were supposed to bring goods and construction materials, before returning water to the Po near Pavia. In particular, Leonardo was very busy looking for a solution to level the water in the Navigli, which at the time was not compatible with river navigation. But during his excursions in Lombardy’s territory, he also admired the colors of nature around Milan.He saw a spectacular blue sky on clear days and much more vibrant vegetation than what had been admired in Tuscany and other parts of the Peninsula that he already knew. It was with this stylistic intuition, which is the lively Lombardism of painting colors, that he began to create, on a wooden table, *The Virgin Mary Nursing the Child*, a work of stunning chromatic purity, moving beauty, and simplicity. *Our Lady Litta* reflects better the great Leonardesque mystery, made of subtle charm, meditative quietness.Thanks to Milan, we remember that Leonardo alternates periods of intense and total creative fury with moments of meditative pause in which he does not physically intervene in the work but prepares it for correction according to new intentions born during its execution, modalities of execution that seem to allow a comparison with the *Our Lady of Litta*.In the evidence of the images, so clear in Verrocchio’s style, the *Annunciation* by Leonardo and the nuance that models the sublime, though today much damaged, head of Christ proclaiming the imminent betrayal of one of the Apostles, we find, in analogous figurative terms, in the formulation of *Our Lady of Litta*.Thus, the profile of Our Lady seems almost superimposable on that of Philip the Apostle in the *Last Supper*, precisely because of the analogical configuration of the figure, filled with pictorial material in turn filled with a strong, clear, and pure light that makes the image tangible and charged with intense emotion, while the light filtering from the background of the *Virgin and Child* seems to be conceived with the same impalpable airy lightness with which the light of the Cenacle invades the scene within a formidable structure of perspective.