Madonna and Child and Saints

The Virgin sits at the centre with the Christ Child in her lap, placed beyond a short flight of steps and surrounded by eight saints arranged in a semicircle, their poses largely symmetrical and turning in contrapposto. A few can be recognised by their attributes, such as the kneeling John the Baptist who gestures toward the Child, or a warrior saint with a long sword; the others are hard to identify with certainty. The picture is generally dated to around 1515, in the painter's final years, and the classical architecture recalls his stay in Rome in 1508. The pyramidal arrangement echoes models by Leonardo and Bramante, yet the horizontal rhythm of the portico, colonnades and a large Ionic temple holds it back and steadies it. Anatomy is simplified, the palette is pale, and light falls both from the front and from behind, a device linked to Leonardo's experiments in Milan and shared by Lotto and Romanino. The result is a suspended, almost unreal atmosphere of intellectual restraint.

Painter

Bramantino

Date

1515

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

203 × 167 cm

Museum

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Genre

religious art

Depicts

boy, Mary, woman, mother, Christ Child

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