Virgin and Child

Andrea Mantegna spent most of his career as court painter to the Gonzaga rulers of Mantua, at work on grand frescoes and mythologies. This is something quieter and more personal: a small picture meant for private prayer at home, not for a chapel wall. He painted it in glue-based tempera on fine cloth rather than in oil, which leaves a soft, matte surface, closer to pastel than to the hard polish of most panel paintings. The Virgin holds the child close against her, a plain and tender image with none of the stony grandeur Mantegna gave his public works. He made several of these intimate Madonnas across his life, each one a little different.