Virgin and Child enthroned with SS. Peter, Paul, Francis and Anthony of Padua

Francesco Vecellio painted this image of the Virgin and Child around 1520, one of the most fundamental subjects in European devotional art. The intimate bond between mother and child served as a focus for prayer and meditation. The painting is in the Gemäldegalerie Berlin. The 1520s were a decade of transition, marked by the deaths of Raphael and Leonardo, the shock of the Reformation, and the beginnings of Mannerist experimentation.

The devotional composition is rendered with attention to the expressive and contemplative qualities that served the painting's function as an aid to prayer and meditation.