Francesco Bonsignori

In late fifteenth-century Venice, a striking style of portraiture – derived from Netherlandish portraiture – was being popularised in the city by the Sicilian artist Antonello da Messina; this is a typical example of it. The dark background, the three-quarter pose and the sharp lighting used here...

The Virgin holds the infant Christ close to her, drawing his cheek to her face. The pair are flanked by four saints. We can't be sure of their identities, but the one holding a book wears the brown robes of the Franciscans, a religious order of friars.The tender pose of mother and son derives fro...