Studio of Bronzino, Virgin and Child with the Infant Baptist
This work of Renaissance Mannerism was probably created by a follower of Agnolo Bronzino, as the rendering matches Bronzino’s affinity for serene, distant, milky-white subjects and detailed depictions of depth and space.
Mannerists often sketched from sculptures, helping them render beautiful, often exaggeratedly idealized figures. Mary, so depicted here, has skin a creamy white, her neck impossibly long, eyes averted in a characteristic Bronzino fashion. The dark background throws into relief the stunning colors of her clothing and emphasizes the soft, pleasing variations of light that give her an ethereal quality. This piece is among the idealized images of the Mary and Christ that have become so ubiquitous in Western art, rendering it impossible to depict motherhood in the West without either explicitly or implicitly referencing Virgin and Child.
Here, Mary’s motherhood is characterized by a tension and worry that her son seems to have none of. While she stares at the lamb, a symbol of Christ’s forthcoming sacrifice, and holds her son back, his pose is all bounding energy, reaching forward entirely untroubled by her unease. Part of motherhood, it seems, is reconciling knowledge of the world’s ugliness with the task of raising a child in that same world.