Vierge à l'Enfant

Bramantino took his nickname from Bramante, the architect rebuilding Milan around 1500, and you can feel the debt in his painting, in the grave, simplified figures set against cool, weighty architecture. This little Madonna dates from around then, when Milan had just lost Leonardo da Vinci, who left the city about 1500 after nearly 20 years there. Bramantino was among the painters who stayed on. His Virgin is monumental for so small a panel, built up in broad planes of light and set against bare walls, still and heavy as carved stone.