1. Madonna and Child

2. The painter The attribution of this painting to Leonardo remains controversial. There is little doubt he had a hand in the unsigned Litta Madonna, but it is awkwardly composed and more than likely was completed by Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, who was a pupil of Leonardo’s in the master’s Milanese workshop under the master’s supervision.

3. The time it was painted There are two versions. Some scholars considered that Madonna and Child was probably painted in Milan, where the artist moved in 1482 and the others considered that it was completed by Leonardo da Vinci ’s pupil, Boltraffio, around 1480-1490.

4. The content This work shows the Madonna suckling the Christ Child. That the Madonna's sublime, tender gaze as she looks at her son seems to be the epitome of motherhood and motherly love, perceived as perhaps the greatest human value., and beyond the symmetrical windows lies an endless mountain landscape, recalling the harmony and vastness of all Creation.

5. The way it was painted It was painted by tempera on canvas or medium oil on canvas and then in 1865 by Emperor Alexander II who added it to the Hermitage where it was transferred from panel to canvas.

6. The reason it was painted Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna Litta was painted sometime in the 1480s for the Visconti rulers of Milan and soon passed to the Litta family, in whose possession the painting would remain for centuries.

7. The place it was stored It was stored in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. ＊ Why? In 1865, Alexander II of Russia acquired Leonardo's Madonna Litta from Count Litta, quondam minister to St Petersburg, and deposited the painting in the Hermitage Museum, where it has been exhibited to this day.

8. Another work by the painter Madonna of the RocksVirgin of the Rocks

9. Reference material ＊ http://www.lairweb.org.nz/leonardo/litta.html http://www.lairweb.org.nz/leonardo/litta.html ＊ http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/0 3/h http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/0 3/h m3_3_1b.html ＊ http://www.universalleonardo.org/work.php?i d= http://www.universalleonardo.org/work.php?i d 251 ＊ http://www.leonardo- davinci.org/madonnalitta.php

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