# Virgin and Child

- By: Ercole de'Roberti (Italian, 1455/56–1496)
- Date: 1490–96
- Medium: Tempera or oil on panel
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 52 × 35 cm (20 1/2 × 13 3/4 in.); Framed: 68 × 51.8 × 7 cm (26 3/4 × 20 3/8 × 2 3/4 in.)
- Culture: Italy
- Credit line: Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/59916)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/ef9398a74a6d246281ed63138e16ea5d.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Ercole de’ Roberti’s painting of the Virgin and Child is calm, expressing a gentle melancholy. The artist’s mannerisms are evident in the exaggerated, slender fingers of the Virgin, which seem to barely hold the Christ Child, even as they press into his flesh. Ercole worked in Bologna and, from 1486, in Ferrara, where he was associated with the sophisticated court of the ruling Este family, who supported the arts, sciences, literature, and philosophy.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0