Bolognini Madonna

This is early Correggio, painted around 1514 when he was in his twenties and still absorbing the giants just ahead of him. The soft modeling of the faces owes something to Leonardo, and the tidy triangle of Mary, the Christ child, and the young John the Baptist follows Raphael. John hands the baby a small cross, a quiet sign of the sacrifice to come. The painting looks slightly out of focus, and part of that is not the artist's doing. Long ago it was lifted off its wooden panel and moved onto canvas, which dulled the once brighter colors. It carries the name of Gian Giacomo Bolognini, a Milanese collector who owned nearly 200 paintings and left the lot to the city, this one among them.