Marco Basaiti, 'The Virgin and Child', about 1496-1505

The Virgin Mary steadies the infant Christ as he attempts to stand on the marble ledge that separates us from the world of the holy figures. He makes a blessing gesture with his right hand while the Virgin gently supports him at the elbow. Both figures look down upon us, suggesting that the image was intended to be hung high up on the wall, and its relatively small size suggests that it was made for private worship at home. Images that stressed the maternal bond between mother and son, as this one does, were often made to appeal particularly to women.

The design of the painting, where the Virgin is placed against a mountainous background that is partly obscured by a dark green hanging, was popularised by Giovanni Bellini, whose workshop produced numerous images of this kind (see, for example, The Virgin and Child and The Virgin and Child by Bellini’s workshop). The motif of the marble ledge usually features in these paintings too. Here, the Virgin’s cloak falls over the edge into the viewer’s space, a visual trick that both suggests another space in front of the ledge and makes it appear as though she is just within reach.

Like the portrait of a man in our collection, this is an early work by the Venetian artist Marco Basaiti. He signed it at the left edge of the marble parapet, but the bottom part of the signature was cut off when the painting’s lower edge was trimmed down before it entered our collection.