La Vierge Aldobrandini

By around 1532 Titian ran the busiest workshop in Venice, and demand for his gentle outdoor Madonnas was high enough that he let his assistants make at least two more versions of this one, now in Florence and in Texas. The scene is quiet. In a soft meadow the Virgin holds the Christ Child, who leans toward Saint Catherine for a kiss, while the young John the Baptist offers flowers and fruit from the left. One thing a viewer at the time would have caught straight away is the clothing. For centuries the Virgin had been shown by long convention in a red dress and a blue cloak, and Titian simply set that aside here. Up in the sky an angel appears, and a few shepherds in the far background have looked up and seen it.