Madonna and Child

The Louvre dates this panel to 1513, when Venice was still at war, fighting to recover the mainland towns it had lost after its defeat at Agnadello four years earlier. The museum catalogues it as the work of Cima da Conegliano's workshop, his assistants repeating a design of his that survives in many versions. The Child stands on his mother's lap, her hand beneath one of his feet, while she looks down. A curtain hangs behind her, and past it a small town climbs a hill. Cima's name is painted on the stone ledge along the bottom, yet the Louvre judges this a fairly weak example of the design. When it came to the museum in 1914, with a collector's bequest, the inventory already entered it as after Cima.