Madonna and Child
c. 1490
Medium
tempera on panel
Dimensions
painted surface: 32.8 x 24.7 cm (12 15/16 x 9 3/4 in.) support (includes frame, carved from single piece of wood): 39 x 30.9 cm (15 3/8 x 12 1/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CIS-R
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Samuel H. Kress Collection
Accession Number
1939.1.264
Art Historical Context
Carlo Crivelli’s *Madonna and Child*, painted around 1490, exemplifies the intimate devotional works that flourished in late fifteenth-century Italy. Created in tempera on a small wooden panel—measuring just under thirteen inches high—this portable painting was likely intended for private prayer in a home or chapel. The medium’s fine detail and luminous quality allowed Crivelli to render delicate textures in the Virgin’s veil and the Christ Child’s plump limbs with remarkable precision. Although trained in the Venetian tradition, Crivelli developed a distinctive style marked by crisp contours...