Madonna and Child on Clouds
n.d.
Medium
Etching in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Plate/sheet: 15.5 × 10.8 cm (6 1/8 × 4 5/16 in.)
Classification
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
44750
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Federico Barocci’s tender etching is one of the first the artist completed. The intimate scale makes the work ideal for personal devotion. The infant Christ’s direct, beatific gaze at the viewer gently contrasts with the rapt adoration lavished on him by his sweet, youthful mother. The flying putto heads in the cloudburst on either side exude a sense of calm and protection, while the detail of the Virgin’s sandaled foot anchors the pyramidal group on what would otherwise be an insubstantial wisp...
About the Artist
Federico Barocci · 1535–1612
Federico Barocci (c. 1535–1612) was an Italian painter from Urbino whose luminous, emotionally tender religious paintings made him one of the most original and influential artists of the late sixteenth century, bridging Mannerism and the early Baroque. Born in Urbino, the city of Raphael, he studied under Battista Franco and traveled to Rome, where he absorbed the lessons of Raphael, Correggio, an...