From 9 November 2019 – 12 January 2020, guests are invited to ‘Experience a Masterpiece’ with the work of Leonardo Da Vinci at The National Gallery

The Ground Floor Galleries will become a painting studio, an imagined chapel and a room-sized experiment in this immersive exhibition that leads you through the mind of Leonardo da Vinci to explore his masterpiece, ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’.

What you will experience

The secrets of Leonardo’s masterpiece are revealed in four distinct spaces. Each space invites you to look at ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’ in a new way.

The mind of Leonardo

Start your journey in a landscape populated by the thoughts and ideas of Leonardo as he sets about painting ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’.

The studio

Discover the secrets only science and conservation can reveal in this projection-filled space which unlocks the mysteries of how ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’ was painted and reveals the lost composition hidden beneath the painted surface.

The light and shadow experiment

Take part in the room-sized experiment to discover the dramatic effects of light and shadow on Leonardo’s composition for ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’.

The imagined chapel

At the end of your journey, you will come face to face with the original masterpiece where it hangs on the walls of an imagined chapel for you to contemplate how ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’ might have appeared in its original setting as part of an elaborate altarpiece.