Virgin and Child

Virgin and Child, at the Art Institute of Chicago, is a late work by Ercole de' Roberti from around 1493 that shows the Ferrarese painter adapting the standard devotional format to his own angular, emotionally searching style. The Art Institute's Italian collection contains several important Early Renaissance works, and the Roberti Virgin and Child represents the distinctive contribution of the Ferrara school to a subject dominated in memory by Florentine and Venetian versions. Roberti's death around 1496 cut short a career that had been producing increasingly intense and individualistic work.

The Virgin and Child are depicted in a three-quarter bust format against a plain ground, the emotional intensity of Roberti's approach evident in the tense, searching quality of the Virgin's expression. His characteristically sharp, precise contour defines the forms against a dark ground, the flesh modeling moving between sculptural clarity and a more atmospheric softness influenced by his exposure to Venetian painting.