Leonardeschi

Both Ambrogio and Evangelista are known for having collaborated with Leonardo in the painting of the Virgin of the Rocks for the altarpiece in the chapel of the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception at the Church of San Francesco Grande in Milan.

In 1490, Leonardo earned recognition and a breakthrough at the court of Ludovico Sforza, and because of the scale of works commissioned he was permitted to have assistants and pupils in his own studio.

In Bologna Dürer was taught the principles of linear perspective (possibly by Luca Pacioli or Donato Bramante), and evidently he became familiar with Leonardo's geometrical construction of shadows technique.

His reputation had spread throughout Europe and he was on friendly terms and in communication with most of the major artists including Raphael, Giovanni Bellini, and—mainly through Lorenzo di Credi—Leonardo da Vinci.

Like Quentin Massys, a fellow artist of Antwerp, Joos van Cleve appropriated some themes and techniques of Leonardo da Vinci.

Paintings by the Italian Renaissance artists Giampietrino (Madonna of the Cherries) and Marco d'Oggiono (The Holy Infants Embracing), both assistants in the workshop of Leonardo da Vinci, were a major influence on the Antwerp master.

Joos van Cleve produced numerous versions of his own paintings after these models, adapting them to his own style and so creating some of the most successful compositions of the time in northern Europe.