Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist, Saint Cecilia, and Angels
Piero di Cosimo (Italian, 1461/62–1521)
c. 1505
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Diam.: 75 cm (29 9/16 in.); Framed: Diam.: 104.2 cm (41 in.)
- Culture
- Italy
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Lacy Armour Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Adult profiles and older: its museum's description or title mentions nudity. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Piero di Cosimo was known as one of the most unorthodox artists in Renaissance Florence. His paintings enliven traditional themes through imaginative inventions. Here, John the Baptist offers plums to the infant Jesus, who eagerly devours one while another lies half-eaten on the ground. At right, Saint Cecilia, patron of musicians, sings from a book of music, while wingless angels look on in the background.
The shadowed effect in the figures surrounding the Virgin and Child indicate that Piero altered his plans for the composition after he had begun painting: He added them on top of the dark background color, which shows through the thin layers of paint on the surface.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
