Madonna and Child
This painting depicts a woman holding a child. The woman is turned towards the left, and she looks down at the child in her lap. She has pale skin, reddish-brown hair, high, arched, eyebrows, and thin, slightly downturned lips. Her hair is put up above her head under a red and brown net with a thin veil hanging over her face. A golden halo is behind her head. Her clothes are ornate, in shades of gold and brown with a collar decorated with pearls and green gems. The child is nude except for a red necklace and red bracelets. They also have pale skin and brown hair, and they are looking up at the woman. The child rests on a green cushion and holds a light pink peach or apple in one hand, and there is a faint golden halo around their head. Next to the woman, on a white marbled surface, is a white bowl of light pink fruit. Behind her is a landscape of green fields, tree-lined, rocky hills, and a light blue body of water. The sky above is a gradient of blue, white towards the horizon and fading into dark blue at the top of the painting. Puffy white clouds drift across the top of the sky.
Colors in this work
Details
- Artist
- Francesco Benaglio
- Date
- late 1460s
- Dimensions
- overall: 80.7 x 56.2 cm (31 3/4 x 22 1/8 in.) framed: 106.4 x 81.6 x 5.7 cm (41 7/8 x 32 1/8 x 2 1/4 in.)
- Department
- CIS-R
- Holding institution
- National Gallery of Art
- Palette
-
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- Image provider
- national-gallery-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Widener Collection
Art Genome Taxonomy
9 tags
Subject Matter
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Madonna and Child Both · 99%
The catalog title identifies the subject as Madonna and Child, and the image visibly shows a haloed woman holding a child with a halo.
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Landscapes Visual · 98%
A substantial background landscape includes water, fields, rocky hills, trees, boats, buildings, and distant figures.
Styles and Movements
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Renaissance Art Interpretive · 88%
The late-1460s date and the work’s devotional figuration, halos, gold ornament, and landscape setting support its classification within Renaissance art, although the supplied catalog does not list a style or movement.
Visual Qualities
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Highly Ornamented Visual · 98%
The Virgin’s mantle and dress feature extensive repeated circular motifs, gold linear ornament, pearls, and colored jewel-like details.
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Patterns Visual · 97%
Repeated circular and linear motifs appear across the mantle, borders, collar, and other costume details.
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Earth Tones Visual · 90%
The image is dominated by muted greens, browns, ochers, golds, and blue-gray atmospheric tones.
Medium and Techniques
Time Periods
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15th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The catalog dates the work to the late 1460s, with a date range of approximately 1465–1469.
Source & rights
Francesco Benaglio. Madonna and Child. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.
High-resolution sources
- IIIF image service ↗ 21,291 × 30,554 · National Gallery Of Art · Available