Madonna and Child

ca. 1508
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 608
Dating to about 1508, this devotional painting is one of Titian’s earliest and shows the artist experimenting with ways to capture the bond between the Madonna and Christ Child. Technical study has revealed that Titian originally arranged the figures sitting in a more traditional upright pose in the center of the canvas. By relaxing their posture, he afforded not a view of two divine icons but a glimpse of an intimate moment of shared affection. Their intercon-nectedness is poetically echoed in the tree, whose two trunks are linked at the base.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Madonna and Child
  • Artist: Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (Italian, Pieve di Cadore ca. 1485/90?–1576 Venice)
  • Date: ca. 1508
  • Medium: Oil on wood
  • Dimensions: Overall 18 x 22 in. (45.7 x 55.9 cm); painted surface 17 x 21 1/2 in. (43.2 x 54.6 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: The Jules Bache Collection, 1949
  • Object Number: 49.7.15
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

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