Virgin and Child
Ercole de'Roberti
1490–1496
- Medium
- Tempera or oil on panel
- Dimensions
- 52 × 35 cm (20 1/2 × 13 3/4 in.); Framed: 68 × 51.8 × 7 cm (26 3/4 × 20 3/8 × 2 3/4 in.)
- Genre
- painting
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
religioncherriesoil paintings (visual works)painting15th centuryred (color)sonsmelancholypaintwomangreen (color)Jesusbabiesjewelryreligious figuresoil on panelplant materialVirgin and child/Madonna and childpanel paintingoil paint (paint)painting (image making)pearlspainting techniquesItalianmother and childVirgin Marywood (plant material)Christian subjectsreligiousorganic materialchildrenoil paintingwoman with childrenpanel (wood)european paintingChristianitytemperamother
About
Ercole de’ Roberti’s painting of the Virgin and Child is calm, expressing a gentle melancholy. The artist’s mannerisms are evident in the exaggerated, slender fingers of the Virgin, which seem to barely hold the Christ Child, even as they press into his flesh. Ercole worked in Bologna and, from 1486, in Ferrara, where he was associated with the sophisticated court of the ruling Este family, who supported the arts, sciences, literature, and philosophy.