Madonna and Child

This exquisite panel is signed and dated 1483, when the artist was barely over twenty years old. The face of the Virgin, framed by her white veil and red mantle, shows a psychological subtlety worthy of Giovanni Bellini, whose compositions Bonsignori must have known. On the other hand the rendering of form is far more plastic than is typical of Bellini. The Virgin’s hands seem almost carved out of wood and the sharp, crumpled folds of her mantle, are very three dimensional. The foreshortening of the Child immediately recalls Andrea Mantegna, the other major source of inspiration for Bonsignori. The theme is interpreted here as an allegory of the Passion of Christ: the sleeping Child lies on a marble slab that refers to the stone of unction where the body of Christ was annointed before the entombment, and the Virgin in prayer and meditation over the Child prefigures her lamentation over her dead son.