Virgen de Bagnacavallo

This small Madonna and Child spent a very long time almost unnoticed in a convent at Bagnacavallo, in the Romagna. Only in 1961 did the art historian Roberto Longhi pick it out, working from a photograph, and propose it as an early work by Albrecht Durer. If that is right, it would date to around 1495, when the young German was heading home from his first trip to Venice and taking in Italian painting along the way. The attribution has never been settled, and scholars still argue over it, since the plain, quiet panel lacks the crisp, unmistakable detail Durer is famous for. When the convent closed in 1969, the picture was sold to the collector Luigi Magnani, and it hangs today in his foundation in the hills near Parma.