madonna col bambino

Madonna col Bambino (Madonna with Child) by Andrea Solari, dated around 1495 and now in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, shows the Lombard painter applying his Leonardesque training to the most perennial of devotional subjects. Solari had studied in Venice before his exposure to Leonardo's circle in Milan transformed his approach to light, modeling, and composition. His Madonna paintings translate Leonardo's innovations in the subject — the pyramidal composition, the soft interplay of mother and child, the atmospheric landscape backgrounds visible through windows — into accessible devotional format. Milan's Poldi Pezzoli holds several Solari works, making it the primary institution for understanding his mature style.

Oil on panel with the Leonardesque compositional type — the Madonna in three-quarter view, the Christ child in her arms reaching outward or touching her face, a window or loggia background revealing a landscape or sky. Solari's sfumato modeling of the Madonna's veil and the infant's flesh demonstrates his absorption of Leonardo's tonal technique.