The Virgin and Child

Marco Basaiti, who was a Venetian painter of Greek origin who developed a distinctive blend of Vivarini precision and Belliniesque atmospheric color, created this work around 1496, now in London's National Gallery. The depiction of the Virgin and Child was the single most common subject in Italian Renaissance art, serving as a focus for both private devotion and public worship. This work belongs to the High Renaissance, when the innovations of the preceding century were synthesized into works of monumental clarity and ideal beauty.

The Madonna's pose and the Christ Child's gestures follow codified devotional types, with the artist investing these conventional forms with individual character through subtle variations in expression and color.