Italian school; 17th century.

Italian school; 17th century.
“Virgin and Child.”
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 56 x 45 cm.
This work follows one of the most widespread devotional models in Baroque painting. The composition, conceived in an intimate and close-up format, focuses all attention on the emotional bond between Mary and the Infant Jesus, presented with remarkable simplicity and emotional tenderness.
The Virgin holds the Child on her lap while both look directly at the viewer, establishing a direct connection that reinforces the meditative nature of the image. The sweetness of the faces, the soft transitions of light, and the delicate rendering of the skin tones reveal the influence of the pictorial tradition developed in Italy from Renaissance models and reworked during the Baroque period by artists associated with the schools of Bologna, Rome, and Venice. The chromatic harmony, dominated by the traditional red and blue tones of the Virgin’s mantle, contributes to the serenity and balance of the composition.