Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis

In April 1483 a Milanese confraternity, a lay brotherhood devoted to the Immaculate Conception, signed a contract for a new altarpiece. It named three painters — Leonardo da Vinci, newly arrived from Florence, and the local brothers Ambrogio and Evangelista de Predis. The central panel became one of Leonardo's most famous paintings, the Virgin of the Rocks.

Ambrogio de Predis was already a fixture at the Sforza court, where the dukes ruled Milan. He designed coins, painted miniatures, and had a sharp eye for a likeness, which made him a sought-after portraitist. His side panels of angels playing music flanked Leonardo's Virgin. What followed the commission was a quarrel over money that dragged on for some 25 years: the painters argued the materials had cost far more than the agreed fee, and the confraternity refused to pay the difference. De Predis was still pressing the case long after, and took part in the final settlement.

He is counted among the Leonardeschi, the circle of Milanese artists who absorbed Leonardo's manner, and his lute-playing angel now hangs in the National Gallery in London, one wing of that long-disputed altarpiece.