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Madonna and Child

late 1480s
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 606
Separated from our everyday world by a parapet, the Madonna nonetheless draws the viewer in with her gaze. A cloth of honor, a rich textile often displayed behind her, has been pulled aside to reveal a distant landscape, where we witness the transition from dormant to verdant nature—a metaphor, like the dawn sky, for death and rebirth. The asymmetrical composition looks ahead to the work of Titian. When Albrecht Dürer visited Venice, he met Bellini, then in his seventies, and declared him "still the best in the art of painting."

The fine Venetian frame is of the period.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Madonna and Child
  • Artist: Giovanni Bellini (Italian, Venice, 1424/26–1516 Venice)
  • Date: late 1480s
  • Medium: Oil on wood
  • Dimensions: 35 x 28 in. (88.9 x 71.1 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1908
  • Object Number: 08.183.1
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Vulcan Building a Fence Around the Mount of Venus, Giovanni Bellini ca. 1430–1516 Italian, Pen and brown ink, over traces of black chalk.
Vulcan Building a Fence Around the Mount of Venus
Giovanni Bellini
late 15th century
Madonna and Child, Giovanni Bellini Italian, Tempera, oil, and gold on wood
Madonna and Child
Giovanni Bellini
ca. 1470
The Circumcision, Giovanni Bellini Italian, Oil on wood
The Circumcision
Giovanni Bellini
1511
Madonna Adoring the Sleeping Child, Giovanni Bellini Italian, Tempera on wood
Madonna Adoring the Sleeping Child
Giovanni Bellini
early 1460s
Madonna and Child, Giovanni Bellini Italian, Oil on wood
Madonna and Child
Giovanni Bellini
ca. 1510

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