Madonna and Child

Pietro Lombardo (or Pietro di Martino da Carona)

ca. 1495 · Relief: stone, traces of gilding; Frame: stone painted blue and gilded in parts · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

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]

Artist

Pietro Lombardo (or Pietro di Martino da Carona)

Date

ca. 1495

Medium

Relief: stone, traces of gilding; Frame: stone painted blue and gilded in parts

Culture

Italian, Venice

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Frederick C. Hewitt Fund, 1913