Artwork
Madonna and Child with St John
Madonna and Child with St John is an oil painting by the High Renaissance artist Luini Bernardino. It dates from 1506 and is held in the collection of the Bavarian State Painting Collections. Created in 1506, this oil painting presents a Virgin Mary with the infant Christ and the youthful Saint John the Baptist.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The inclusion of St John underscores his role as the precursor to Jesus, linking the earthly and the sacred within the narrative of salvation.
The composition portrays the Virgin Mary tenderly holding the infant Christ, while the young St John the Baptist stands nearby, a common devotional arrangement in Renaissance religious art. Symbolically, the figures embody purity and divine love, with Mary’s gaze and the children’s gestures reinforcing themes of maternal tenderness and the prefiguration of Christ’s sacrifice. The inclusion of St John underscores his role as the precursor to Jesus, linking the earthly and the sacred within the narrative of salvation.
Technique & Style
The painting is executed in oil on a poplar wood panel, a common support for Northern Italian panels of the early sixteenth century. The handling shows the careful layering typical of Luini’s early work, with smooth transitions in the modeling of faces and drapery that reveal a close study of Leonardo’s sfumato. The composition is organized around a pyramidal arrangement, with the Virgin and Child at the center flanked by the young Saint John, whose gaze directs attention toward the Christ Child.
Subtle tonal harmonies and softly blended contours characterize the figures, while the landscape recedes through atmospheric recession, underscoring Luini’s assimilation of Lombard Leonardeschi style.
History & Provenance
The work was created in 1506 by Bernardino Luini as an oil painting on panel depicting the Madonna and Child with Saint John. It entered the collection of the Bavarian State Painting Collections and has been housed in the Alte Pinakothek since its acquisition. The painting was produced during the early High Renaissance period and reflects the religious artistic conventions of the time.
The composition shows the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus while the young John the Baptist stands nearby, a common devotional subject in Italian Renaissance art. The work was painted on wooden panel using oil pigments, measuring 42 centimeters in height and 35.4 centimeters in width.
Madonna and Child with St John is housed in the Alte Pinakothek, part of the Bavarian State Painting Collections in Munich. The work entered the collection under inventory number 2788. It has been featured in exhibitions at the Alte Pinakothek, including a 2006 retrospective on Luini's religious works and a 2015 display on High Renaissance devotional paintings.
The painting measures 42 cm in height and 35.4 cm in width, created in oil on panel in 1506.
Overview
Created in 1506, this oil painting presents a Virgin Mary with the infant Christ and the youthful Saint John the Baptist. The work resides in Munich’s Alte Pinakothek and exemplifies the High Renaissance period in northern Italy.
Context
Luini worked in Lombardy during a time when Leonardo’s techniques spread throughout the region. The painting’s softened landscape background, with indistinct trees and a distant structure, mirrors the atmospheric depth favored by Leonardo and his followers.
Artist & collection
Artist
Bernardino Luini (c. 1480/82 – June 1532) was a north Italian painter from Leonardo's circle during the High Renaissance. Both Luini and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio were said to have worked with Leonardo directly; he…
- Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John
Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John
Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John
Madonna and Child with St. John
Madonna and Child with Saint John
Madonna and Child with the Little St. John Baptist
Madonna with Child Jesus and St. John
Madonna with child and Saint John the Baptist