A Virgem com o Menino e os santos José, Isabel e João Batista

Mantegna made this small devotional picture in the 1480s, not in oil but in distemper, pigment bound in glue and brushed onto fine linen, which dries to a soft matte surface closer to pastel than to the glossy panels of his rivals. He kept it small and precise on purpose, an image meant for private prayer. The one loud note is the Christ Child, who stands in a confident twisting pose lifted straight from ancient Roman statues, the kind Mantegna and his patrons in Mantua were then digging up and collecting. The Virgin's coral robe was once threaded with gold embroidery, now worn thin, its rippling pattern only faintly visible against the cloth.