Behind The Painting: The Virgin of the Rocks

Christmas imagery is often dominated by clarity and light. Gold haloes, clean interiors, idealised figures. Yet some of the most compelling images associated with Christ’s birth resist that visual comfort. They place the Nativity not in an ordered, glowing world, but in one that feels uncertain and materially grounded.

Leonardo da Vinci’s The Virgin of the Rocks is not a Nativity scene in the conventional sense. There is no stable, no star, and no sense of public witness. Instead, the painting presents a quiet encounter set within a rocky grotto. It is an image that lends itself to reflection at Christmas precisely because it avoids spectacle.