Virgin and Child, ca. 1475 – 1480

About the Work

The representation of the Madonna with the infant Christ is one of the most popular picture themes of the Italian Renaissance.

In Florence at the end of the 15th century, the workshop of the sculptor and painter Verrocchio stood out with such compositions. His Umbrian assistant Piermatteo d'Amelia placed mother and child in a loggia that opens onto a distant landscape on one side while he also contrasted the meditative inwardness of Mary with the open nature of the infant Christ gazing directly at the observer.