Artwork
The Madonna Adoring the Child, with an Angel
The Madonna Adoring the Child, with an Angel is an unspecified painting. It dates from 1550 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
History & Provenance
No explicit accession number is provided in the available documentation, and the sources do not mention any exhibition history for this work.
The Madonna Adoring the Child, with an Angel is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It belongs to the Robert Lehman Collection, which forms part of the museum’s European paintings holdings. The work is dated to 1550 and is attributed to the School of Lorenzo di Credi.
No explicit accession number is provided in the available documentation, and the sources do not mention any exhibition history for this work.
Context
Attributed to the School of Lorenzo di Credi, The Madonna Adoring the Child, with an Angel (c. 1550) reflects the late Renaissance devotional idiom that persisted in Florentine workshops well into the mid-sixteenth century. Scholarship situates the panel within a corpus of small-scale, intimate Marian images produced for private devotion, a genre Lorenzo di Credi himself helped codify in the 1480s–1490s. While the work’s modest dimensions and delicate execution align with workshop practices, its refined sfumato and tender figural interplay suggest familiarity with Leonardo da Vinci’s influence on Lorenzo’s circle.
The painting’s inclusion in the Robert Lehman Collection underscores its perceived continuity with earlier Florentine masterworks, though modern connoisseurship often categorizes it as a period echo rather than an autograph innovation.
Overview
This artwork, titled The Madonna Adoring the Child, with an Angel, depicts a devotional scene centered on the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. Rendered as a preparatory sketch, it captures a moment of tender interaction between mother and child, observed by a celestial figure. The composition suggests a setting amidst ancient ruins, hinting at themes of renewal and the passage of time.
Subject & Meaning
The central focus is the kneeling Madonna, whose hands delicately rest upon the head of the Christ Child. Behind them, a winged angel is subtly present near a dilapidated wall, its features indistinct. The distant background, lightly sketched, portrays a ruined cityscape, which may symbolize the old world giving way to the new spiritual era heralded by Christ's birth.
Technique & Style
The artist employs a drawing technique that emphasizes form through light and shadow, characteristic of chiaroscuro. The figures are enveloped in drapery, creating a sense of volume. While the Madonna and child are more defined, the angel's face appears intentionally blurred or unfinished, drawing attention to the central figures. The background elements are rendered with a lighter touch, establishing depth.
Artist & collection
- The Virgin and Child Surrounded by Saints and Angels
The Nativity
The Adoration of the Magi
The Holy Family
Adoration of the Magi
The Adoration of the Shepherds
Virgin and Child in the Grotto (Adoration of the Magi)
Madonna and Child with Angels
Fragment of a Cartoon of the 'Adoration of the Magi'
The Virgin and Child with Saints
The Adoration of the Shepherds
The Nativity
