L'Adoration de l'Enfant

Girolamo di Benvenuto's L'Adoration de l'Enfant, painted around 1500 and now in the Musée Magnin in Dijon, depicts the newborn Christ adored by the kneeling Virgin — the devotional image type associated with Franciscan piety and Saint Bridget of Sweden's vision of the Nativity, in which Mary was shown kneeling in adoration before the child she had laid on the ground. Girolamo di Benvenuto, a Sienese painter working in the tradition of Matteo di Giovanni and absorbing influence from Pinturicchio and Perugino, produced this devotional image with the warm emotional accessibility that characterized Sienese devotional painting at the turn of the sixteenth century. The Musée Magnin in Dijon holds a distinguished collection of Italian paintings.

The kneeling Virgin adores the infant Christ lying on the ground before her, her clasped hands forming the gesture of prayer and adoration. Girolamo di Benvenuto's Sienese warmth shows in the soft color and the tender facial expression. The landscape background uses atmospheric blue for spatial recession.