Virgin and Child

Ercole de'Roberti · 1490–96

Medium

Tempera or oil on panel

Original size

52 × 35 cm (20 1/2 × 13 3/4 in.); Framed: 68 × 51.8 × 7 cm (26 3/4 × 20 3/8 × 2 3/4 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Italian Renaissance

Ercole de'Roberti's *Virgin and Child* is a work of quiet emotional intensity — the Madonna's downcast gaze and the Child's tender weight against her hand conveying a grief already anticipated within this moment of intimacy. De'Roberti was one of the foremost painters of the Ferrarese school, working in a tradition shaped by Cosmè Tura and Francesco del Cossa, though his figures carry a distinctly personal quality: more lyrical, more psychologically alive. His handling of light on drapery and flesh achieves a sculptural precision unusual for the period, whether working in tempera or the oil technique he adopted later in his career. The composition here is restrained — almost austere — which only deepens its devotional gravity. The panel dates from de'Roberti's mature period and is considered one of the finest examples of northern Italian devotional painting in any American collection. Our hand-painted oil reproduction is made to order by skilled fine-art painters working from high-resolution archival sources, preserving the subtlety of de'Roberti's modelling and the cool luminosity that gives the original its meditative presence.