Madonna del Latte

The Madonna del Latte—the nursing Madonna—appears in this 1492 panel at the Blaffer Art Museum in Houston. The image of the Virgin nursing the Christ Child was a powerful devotional type that emphasized Mary"s humanity and maternal role. Though the subject became controversial after the Council of Trent tightened standards of decorum in religious art, it remained popular throughout the fifteenth century when Pinturicchio painted this version. Pinturicchio — Bernardino di Betto — was the master of decorative fresco in late fifteenth-century Rome, executing major commissions for Pope Innocent VIII in the Belvedere, Pope Alexander VI in the Borgia Apartments, and Pope Pius III in the Piccolomini Library in Siena.

The intimate act of nursing creates the painting"s devotional focus, with the physical bond between mother and child rendered with naturalistic tenderness. Pinturicchio handles the subject with the gentle dignity characteristic of Umbrian painting, avoiding both the earthiness of some Northern versions and the cold idealization of later Counter-Reformation art. The palette is warm, centered on the flesh tones of mother and child.