The Benois Madonna

 The painting takes it's name from Leon Benois the artist who owned the work until 1914. The picture has been copied by several artists and also served as an inspiration for Raphael who used the figure of the Virgin for one of his own paintings.

 The Madonna's right leg leads us into the painting. With the Christ Child seated firmly on his mothers knee, the work has a dynamism that Leonardo used in many of his later pictures. His, "The Virgin and Child with St Anne", painted some thirty years later, displays many of the same characteristics.

The Benois Madonna 1480. oil on wood, 48x31 cm, Hermitage Museum Leningrad. (s)