2-999-795 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Madonna and Child, 1480-1485. Christ and Mary’s divinity is downplayed; their halos are just barely visible and they appear quite simply as mother and son, sharing an intimate and almost playful exchange as the Christ Child holds onto his mother’s hand and reaches for her face. The Madonna has propped the child up on a stone table (perhaps intended to recall an altar) and before an expansive landscape of rocky cliffs, rolling hills, and a distant castle.