Virgin and the Shivering Child

This terracotta relief, intended for private devotion, numbers among the most affecting of all Florentine Renaissance Madonnas, due to the sensitivity with which the inner emotions of the figures are made apparent by the modelling. In this atmospheric composition, with its painterly play of light and shadow, affinities have been seen with the highly expressive art of Andrea del Verrocchio, or works by Leonardo da Vinci – and not without justification. The facial expressions and gestures indicate that this intimate interplay of mother and child is overshadowed by a knowledge of the Passion of Christ.