Madonna and Child (Back)

An artist in Lorenzo di Credi's large workshop probably made this painting under the master's direction, adapting elements from various other paintings. The apprentice or journeyman took the composition from an altarpiece begun by another artist and finished by Lorenzo. The two landscapes in the background look quite different, since they derive from two different landscape traditions. The apprentice copied the landscape with a water mill on the right from an altarpiece by Hans Memling, whose Northern Europeans landscape paintings were being imported to Florence around this time, and took the landscape on the left from other works by Lorenzo. The anonymous artist adopted Leonardo da Vinci's early color scheme of delicate light blue, red, and pale violet for the Madonna's garments.