Lombard School, 16th Century, Madonna And Child

Lombard School, 16th century
Madonna and Child
Oil on copper, cm 18.5 x 13.5
With frame, cm 28 x 22

The work, an oil on copper depicting the Madonna and Child, is presented with a close-up half-length shot, emphasizing the intimacy of the chosen subject. The image is dominated by the figure of the Virgin, whose inclined face and deep gaze turned towards the Child express sweetness and melancholy, a harbinger of the Passion. The dominant colors are the bright red of the dress and the pure white of the veil, which contrast with the darkness of the background. The presence of a fine halo around the Child's head and the affectionate gestures with which the two characters are immortalized – the palm gently clasped in the Child's hands and the Virgin's index finger pointing at the open book - accentuate the devotional and intimate nature of the copper, which most likely originated from a private commission.
The painting reflects the different aspects typical of 16th-century Lombard painting, a period strongly influenced by Leonardo da Vinci's presence in Milan (active until around 1513) and his subsequent adherence to the principles of the Counter-Reformation. Note, in fact, Leonardo's influence in the use of soft chiaroscuro and sfumato to shape the flesh tones, especially in the faces, which gives the figures a sense of delicacy and psychological depth: the relationship between the Madonna and the Child is rendered with tenderness and humanity, emotionally involving the observer in the embrace and exchange of glances. During the sixteenth century, the works also began to align with the demands of the Council of Trent: simple and clear compositions were favored, which facilitated the devotion and emotional identification of the faithful, while the figures were often isolated against dark backgrounds, to focus attention on the protagonists and their spiritual meaning. There is a constant attention to Flemish-Lombard detail and naturalism, which here manifests itself in the rendering of the hands, the draperies and the materiality of the objects.
From an iconographic point of view, the work also appears to be influenced by the lessons of Bernardino Luini (Dumenza, circa 1481 – Milan, June 1532), a Lombard painter among the best known Leonardo artists, known for his numerous versions of the subject under examination.