Madona Adorando o Menino Jesus com o Infante São João Batista e um Anjo (Madonna Adoring the Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and an Angel) - Lorenzo di Credi

 

Madona Adorando o Menino Jesus com o Infante São João Batista e um Anjo (Madonna Adoring the Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and an Angel) - Lorenzo di Credi

Metropolitan Museum of Arts, Nova York, Estados Unidos

Têmpera sobre painel - 91 cm - Circa 1490

An angel introduces the infant John the Baptist—a patron saint of Florence—to his newborn cousin, Jesus, who is adored by his mother. The soft, diffused light—inspired by the work of the Netherlandish painter Hans Memling—creates a mood of “gentle pietistic reverie” (the critic Roger Fry, writing in 1909).
Several workshop replicas of this important picture (unfortunately abraded by a past harsh cleaning) survive, as well as a related composition by Fra Bartolomeo, who spent time in Credi’s workshop. The frame is a copy of an original. Circular paintings (tondi) were often displayed in bedrooms.