[7] Parts of the painting, the flowers in particular, indicate the collaboration and have led to speculation that the work is entirely by other hands,[8] possibly Leonardo's assistant Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis and perhaps Evangelista.

[10] The Chapel of the Immaculate Conception was founded prior to 1335 by Beatrice d'Este, wife of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan.

[11] In 1479 the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception contracted Francesco Zavattari and Giorgio della Chiesa to decorate the vault of the chapel.

[11] In 1480 the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception contracted Giacomo del Maino to create a large wooden altarpiece with spaces for paintings and with carvings and decoration, to be placed above the altar of the chapel.

[11] On April 25, 1483, Prior Bartolomeo Scorlione and the Confraternity contracted Leonardo da Vinci, and the brothers Ambrogio and Evangelista de Predis to provide the painted panels for the altarpiece.

[12] The central panel was to be a painting showing the Virgin Mary and Christ child, with two prophets, probably David and Isaiah, surrounded by angels.

[12] The due date of installation was December 8, 1483, the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception, giving seven months for its completion.

[11] On March 9, 1503, Louis XII of France, who had invaded Lombardy in 1499, wrote to the commander of Milan requesting that he intervene on behalf of the artists.

[11] In mid-1785, Gavin Hamilton, a Scottish painter and dealer, paid 1,582 Lire to purchase the Virgin of the Rocks from Alessandro, Count Cicogna, administrator of the religious body which succeeded the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception.

After his death in 1805, his son John was forced to sell nearly all of his father's collections,[15] and the painting was purchased by the 15th Earl of Suffolk.

The National Gallery, in a preliminary announcement of the results of the work, said that it revealed that the painting was largely, possibly entirely, by Leonardo, and unfinished in parts.

[11] For a brief time in 2011–12 it was hung with the London painting as part of an exhibition in the National Gallery on Leonardo's activity as painter to the court of Ludovico Sforza.

[21] The two panels from the completed altarpiece containing figures of angels playing musical instruments were acquired by the National Gallery, London in 1898.

This subject relates to a non-Biblical event which became part of the medieval tradition of the holy family’s journey into Egypt.

According to legend, John was escorted to Egypt by the Archangel Uriel, and met the holy family on the road.

This accords with the Apocryphal gospel of John the Baptist, which describes his removal from Bethlehem as by Gabriel rather than Uriel and does not mention the meeting on the road to Egypt.

[1] The subject of the Virgin Mary with the Christ child being adored by John the Baptist was common in the art of Renaissance Florence.

[24] Those who painted and sculpted the subject of the Mary and child with St John include Fra Filippo Lippi, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

In both paintings, Mary makes the apex of the pyramidal figure group, stretching one hand to include John and raising the other above the head of the Christ child in a blessing.

The Christ child sits towards the front of the painting, supported by the angel, and raising his right hand in a sign of Benediction towards the kneeling John.

In keeping with their conservative handling of Leonardo's works, the Louvre version has not undergone significant restoration or cleaning.

In the darks some mixture of bitumen has made the surface cake and crack like mud, and there are innumerable patches of old repaint all over the picture.

[35] Some writers, including Martin Davies, feel that 1483 is too late a date for the Louvre version, and suggest that the painting had already been begun and perhaps completed in Florence before the commission.

The London painting was commenced in perhaps 1486 as a substitution for the "original" Louvre version, and was not ready for installation until 1508, after prolonged disagreement and negotiation.

This explanation, which della Chiesa attributes to Venturi and Poggi,[38] has gained wide acceptance, and is the version of events described on both the National Gallery and the Louvre websites.

[43] Taylor disputes this, drawing attention to the fact that, at the time of writing, Pizzorusso had plainly not seen the glacial lakes to which she referred, and had mistaken clumps of moss for sandstone boulders.

[46] In her 1967 book (published in English in 1985) Angela Ottino della Chiesa identifies four paintings derived to some degree from The Virgin of the Rocks: the Holy Family and St. John by Bernardino Luini in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, the Thuelin Madonna by Marco d'Oggiono in the Thuelin collection in Paris and the Holy Infants Embracing by Joos van Cleve in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples.

This image was much copied by Flemish artists including Joos van Cleve and Quentin Matsys – there is a small painting in Chatsworth by the latter.

There is also a smaller copy of The Virgin of the Rocks (oil on wood) possibly by Joos van Cleve or his circle (private collection Berlin).

The plot of the episode involves an art forger having to make a copy of Sorrowful Angel as part of a plan to trap a criminal by fooling him into thinking he has purchased a genuine Leonardo.