Virgin and Child
Ercole de'Roberti
1490/96
Medium
Tempera or oil on panel
Dimensions
52 × 35 cm (20 1/2 × 13 3/4 in.); Framed: 68 × 51.8 × 7 cm (26 3/4 × 20 3/8 × 2 3/4 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
59916
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Ercole de’ Roberti’s painting of the Virgin and Child is calm, expressing a gentle melancholy. The artist’s mannerisms are evident in the exaggerated, slender fingers of the Virgin, which seem to barely hold the Christ Child, even as they press into his flesh. Ercole worked in Bologna and, from 1486, in Ferrara, where he was associated with the sophisticated court of the ruling Este family, who supported the arts, sciences, literature, and philosophy.