However, starting from the pre-renaissance era to the era of humanism in paintings, it has brought a few undeniable talents of Da Vinci to light. (And as much as it pains me to commend anything about him, the following are genuine, unbiased complements.)

In Madonna of the Rocks (1506 version), Leonardo Da Vinci portrays the scene where Mary and Baby Jesus escape from King Herod's Massacre of the Innocents (where Herod killed a bunch of babies in desperate hope that one of them be Jesus) and at the same time, coincidentally meet up with John the Baptist, Jesus's cousin. (Artists often identify John the Baptist with his cute cross staff.)

The he/she figure besides baby Jesus is an angel that currently has a gentle hand on baby Jesus's waist to prevent him from falling into some deep abyss only centimeters away. 

Here, Da Vinci makes brilliant use of his "sfumato" technique - which is a play of shadows on a person's face, mouth, and eyes. Instead of bluntly outlining his figures, he instead blends in white highlights and uses tonal gradation, giving a much more three-dimensional view to his figures. Also apparent in a majority of his paintings is the clear and humanistic form of his subjects. Unlike a few of his other fellow painters of the day, Da Vinci used real human subjects to sketch and paint from, evident in the perfect posture of both the he/she angel, Mary, and John the Baptist. 

Da Vinci also enjoyed using symbolism in his paintings. The rocks that decorate the background of the painting represent Mary and Joseph, both described in the bible as stable like rocks. The white flowers on the bottom left seem to be Stars of Bethlehem, symbolizing purity and innocence. Also the hand position of baby Jesus seems to be in the motion of blessing, perhaps a foreshadow. 

But with every Da Vinci painting comes some type of controversy and story. Critics often presume that this painting was a collaboration of more than just Da Vinci. Take the Stars of Bethlehem for example. They are extremely unrealistic and a enormous contrast to the rest of the painting. The flowers are flat, and unlike Da Vinci's sketches of flora. And detail apparently was not put into the flowers for the Stars of Bethlehem usually have six petals, not five. 

Though I cannot say I've become a fan of Da Vinci, with Madonna of the Rocks, I can at least say I won't scorn anything related to Da Vinci from now on.