Madonna with Child

Davide Ghirlandaio, brother of the celebrated Domenico, painted this Madonna with Child around 1488 in Florence. Working closely within the family workshop, Davide produced numerous devotional panels that closely followed his brother's formulas. The Ghirlandaio workshop was the most productive in Florence during the 1480s and 1490s. This work belongs to the Early Renaissance, the transformative period in European art when painters first applied mathematical perspective, naturalistic figure modeling, and archaeological interest in antiquity to the inherited traditions of medieval devotional painting. The tension between Gothic grace and Renaissance structure gives art of this period a distinctive energy.

Tempera on panel with the clean draftsmanship and bright palette characteristic of the Ghirlandaio workshop. The composition follows standard formulas for Florentine devotional Madonna images.