Madonna and Child
This relief was intended as a devotional image for a private chapel, shrine, or well-to-do home. Mary protectively embraces the Christ Child whose slumber symbolically foreshadows his death, as does the leafy fruit in his hand that resembles the apple held by Adam nearby. The sharp contours of the Virgin Mary and the infant Christ are defined by undercutting, and crisp folds of drapery envelop mother and son, their intimacy emphasized by the delicate linearity with which they are carved. The band of stylized vegetation below is inspired by ancient decorative motfis.
[Peter J. Bell, 2015]
[Peter J. Bell, 2015]
Artwork Details
- Title: Madonna and Child
- Artist: Pietro Lombardo (or Pietro di Martino da Carona) (Italian, Carona, Lombardy ca. 1435–1515 Venice)
- Date: ca. 1495
- Culture: Italian, Venice
- Medium: Relief: stone, traces of gilding; Frame: stone painted blue and gilded in parts
- Dimensions: Overall (confirmed, without frame): 31 1/4 × 20 1/4 in., 150.8 lb. (79.4 × 51.4 cm, 68.4 kg)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Frederick C. Hewitt Fund, 1913
- Object Number: 13.199
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
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Italian, Venice, Murano
ca. 1475–1500 (modern foot)
Tullio Lombardo
1490s
Alessandro Vittoria (Alessandro Vittoria di Vigilio della Volpa)
1566
Italian
16th century
Italian, Venice (Murano)
ca. 1530
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