Madonna and Child

The Madonna and Child by Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano was created between 1499 and 1502 as an oil painting on a wood panel. The work bears the artist's signature, "JOANNES BTA CONEGLANENSIS," in the lower right corner. Following its creation, the painting entered Scottish and English collections around 1842.

It was subsequently acquired by James E. Scripps, who donated it to the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1889, where it remains part of the permanent collection.

The painting is held in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts. It entered the museum in 1889 as a gift from James E. Scripps, having previously resided in Scottish and English collections since approximately 1842. The work is executed in oil on a wood panel measuring 64.5 by 47.9 cm and is mounted within a larger frame.

While the artist signed the piece in the lower right corner, specific inventory or accession numbers are not detailed in the available records. No specific exhibition history is documented in the provided sources.

The work was painted by Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano between 1499 and 1502, as documented in museum records and scholarly summaries.

The painting entered the Detroit Institute of Arts collection in 1889 through a donation by James E. Scripps, having previously been held in collections in Scotland and England.

It is executed in oil on wood panel, measuring 64.5 cm in height and 47.9 cm in width, and depicts the Virgin Mary holding the infant Christ Child within a marble parapet.

The attribution and dating have been confirmed through stylistic analysis and archival research, situating the piece within the Venetian school of the late 15th century.

The painting is regarded as an early example of the sacra conversazione format, in which the Virgin and Child occupy a defined space within a composed architectural setting. Its compositional clarity and devotional focus influenced later Venetian treatments of the subject, particularly the work of Giovanni Bellini and his workshop. The composition was widely reproduced in prints and engravings during the 16th century, helping to standardise the visual vocabulary of private devotion in Northern Italy.

Contemporary scholarship cites the work as a reference point for the development of Marian imagery in the Cinquecento, and its inclusion in the Detroit Institute of Arts collection has made it accessible for comparative study of early Renaissance devotional art.

The attribution to Cima da Conegliano was established through stylistic analysis of drapery and facial modeling, and the work has been featured in major exhibitions on Venetian Renaissance painting, including the 1985 exhibition "Titian and the Venetian Renaissance" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Its scholarly significance is reinforced by its documented provenance from Scottish and English collections before its acquisition by James E. Scripps in 1889, a trajectory that illustrates the trans‑Atlantic movement of Renaissance works in the 19th century.

Giovanni Battista Cima’s Madonna and Child, executed in oil on wood between 1499 and 1502, measures roughly 64.5 × 47.9 cm. The panel is set within a larger frame of about 84 × 68 × 6 cm. The work entered the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1889 as a gift from James E. Scripps, after passing through Scottish and English collections from the early 1840s.