The Madonna of the Yarnwinder (Italian: Madonna dei Fusi, “Madonna of the Spindles”[1]) is a subject depicted by Leonardo da Vinci in at least one, and perhaps two paintings begun in 1499 or later. Leonardo was recorded as being at work on one such picture in Florence in 1501 for Florimond Robertet, a secretary to King Louis XII of France. This may have been delivered to the French court in 1507, though scholars are divided on this point. The subject is known today from several versions of which two, called the Buccleuch Madonna and the Lansdowne Madonna, are thought to be partly by Leonardo's hand. The underdrawings of both paintings show similar experimental changes made to the composition (or pentimenti), suggesting that both evolved concurrently in Leonardo's workshop.

The composition shows the Virgin Mary seated in a landscape with the Christ child, who gazes at a yarnwinder used to collect spun yarn. The yarnwinder serves both as a symbol of Mary's domesticity and as a foreshadowing of the Cross on which Christ was crucified. The painting's dynamic composition and implied narrative was highly influential on later High Renaissance depictions of the Madonna and Child by artists such as Raphael and Andrea del Sarto. [Wikipedia]