Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptistc. 1515
This intimate devotional panel, an early work by Antonio da Correggio, reveals the young artist's evolving style. More about this work
About this work
This intimate devotional panel, an early work by Antonio da Correggio, reveals the young artist's evolving style. The distant landscape demonstrates his awareness of Northern European precedents, and the figural composition references the manner of Raphael, while its soft outlines recall Da Vinci. The gentle sensuousness of the figures and the tenderness they show one another, however, are unique to Correggio.
Text from the Art Institute of Chicago.
What you’re looking at
Vividly colored painting of Virgin Mary with baby Jesus and baby John the Baptist.
Description from the Art Institute of Chicago.
How it was made
- Oil on panel
- Oil paint on prepared wooden boards, usually oak in the north and poplar in Italy. The rigid, smooth surface suits fine detail and thin, glowing glazes.
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Antonio da Correggio
Antonio Allegri; Italian, 1489–1534
Renaissance
European art from about 1400 to 1600, when painters rediscovered perspective and the classical past.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Art Institute of Chicago has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1965.688
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
