Infant Christ

This Infant Christ at Christ Church shows Correggio's treatment of the Christ Child as a figure of luminous innocence. His depictions of the infant Jesus set a standard for tenderness and naturalism that influenced devotional art throughout the Catholic world Oil on canvas, increasingly preferred over panel in the sixteenth century, offered greater flexibility for large-scale compositions The work is now in the collection of Christ Church in Oxford.

The child figure is rendered with Correggio's unmatched softness of modeling, the skin bathed in warm light. The rounded forms and gentle expression create an image of divine innocence.