Workshop of Giovanni Bellini, 'The Virgin and Child', about 1490-1500

Small-scale images of the Virgin Mary and Christ Child made for private worship were one of Bellini’s specialities, and there was intense demand for them. Bellini had a large workshop of assistants who worked under his supervision, producing paintings in his style.

This is one of those works, which is now, unfortunately, in poor condition. It adopts the landscape view and the curtain backdrop found in several of Bellini’s own images of this kind (including one in our collection). A shepherd with his flock pauses under a bare tree; leafless trees are found in several of Bellini’s pictures, including the Agony in the Garden and Madonna of the Meadow. The distant hills resemble the landscape just outside Venice. Other elements are characteristic of Bellini’s works: the infant’s nakedness; the marble parapet which separates us from the holy figures; and the cartellino with Bellini’s now-damaged signature – usually included in workshop pictures to prove the master’s design and supervision – which looks as though it has been attached at the last minute.

The marble ledge is probably intended to recall Christ’s tomb – a reminder that, according to Christians, he redeemed humanity through his death in adulthood. It was also often found in portraits of this period, used to reinforce the illusion of the real presence of the painted figures by suggesting a space invisible to us just behind it. The Virgin’s veil is pristine and crisp and, in its stiffness, it recalls the fabrics found in another work by Bellini’s workshop: The Circumcision.

The Virgin lays her hand on a prayer book, or a Bible – a reminder perhaps of images of the Annunciation (the moment she was made pregnant by the Holy Ghost), as she is often shown interrupted from her reading. Coupled with the fact that her blue robe almost encloses her child, we are reminded of her role as the mother of God, appropriate for an image made for a domestic space, most likely a family home. But the book’s position on the marble ledge might be a reminder that Christ’s death was foretold in the Bible, and that this image represents the beginning of the story of humanity’s salvation.