The Virgin and Child

Francesco Morone was a Veronese painter who continued the tradition of Mantegna and his followers into the early sixteenth century. This Virgin and Child, dated 1524 and held in the National Gallery in London, demonstrates Morone's warm, devotional approach to the Marian subject he treated frequently throughout his career. The mother-and-child type was the central image of personal devotion in Renaissance Italy, produced in enormous quantities for private households and chapels. Morone's version brings a characteristic Veronese luminosity and tenderness to the subject, situating it within the northern Italian tradition running from Mantegna through Liberale da Verona.

Morone presents the Madonna and Child in a warm tonal key, with the figures closely grouped against a simple background. Colour tends toward warm reds and blues with a soft, glowing quality characteristic of Veronese devotional painting.