The Virgin and Child Icosidodecahedron

The composition is clearly Leonardesque, as shown by the pyramidal structure of the figures, the Virgin’s tapering fingers and the twisting movement of the Child.
Early in his career, Giampietrino was inspired almost exclusively by Leonardo. On the verso of this panel is painted in fact an icosidodecahedron, a polyhedron made up of twelve regular pentagons and twenty equilateral triangles. This complex solid appears among Leonardo’s drawings in the Codex Atlanticus.
The painting, datable to between 1510 and 1515, confirms the Milanese artist’s fidelity to his mentor. The combination of the two subjects is unusual and intriguing, and it reveals Giampietrino’s cultural modernity and his familiarity with Leonardo’s scientific studies.