Madonna and Child

Davide Ghirlandaio, who was Domenico's younger brother and principal workshop assistant, continuing the family workshop after Domenico's death in 1494, created this work around 1490, now in Mexico City's Museo Soumaya. Madonna and Child images were produced in enormous quantities by Renaissance workshops, serving as essential furnishings for churches, chapels, and private households. This work belongs to the High Renaissance, when the innovations of the preceding century were synthesized into works of monumental clarity and ideal beauty.

Careful attention to the interplay of light on the Virgin's drapery and the modeling of the Christ Child's flesh reveals accomplished technique within the established conventions of Marian devotional imagery.