The Madonna of the Rocks (after Leonardo)

Rebecca Dulcibella Orpen's 1886 copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Rocks is one of several religious subject copies she made for the private chapel at Baddesley Clinton. The practice of copying great religious works for private devotional use had a long history in Catholic tradition, and Baddesley Clinton — a house with a strong recusant Catholic identity going back to the 16th century — was an appropriate setting for such devotional copies. Leonardo's Madonna of the Rocks, with its mysterious cavern setting and tender grouping of the Holy Family, was one of the most copied works of the Italian Renaissance.

Orpen approaches the copy with careful attention to Leonardo's characteristic sfumato — the atmospheric softening of contours that gives his figures their mysterious quality. While lacking the master's subtlety, her version preserves the essential compositional structure and tonal qualities of the original, making it a competent devotional work.