Virgin and Child
- Artist: Andrea del Verrocchio
- Date: (circa) 1475 - 1480
- Medium: tempera and oil on panel
- Museum: The Courtauld Gallery
- Collection record: The Courtauld Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the Virgin and Child, a tempera and oil panel from around 1475–1480 that invites a quiet, almost conversational gaze. The Virgin sits beside a modest parapet, her gaze tender as she steadies the Christ Child on the low ledge. The infant, in a gesture of blessing, lifts one hand—an iconographic touch that echoes earlier Florentine models. The overall pose and the way the figures lean together shows the influence of Andrea Verrocchio, the Florentine sculptor‑painter, yet some scholars now suggest the hand might belong to the Umbrian Luca Signorelli.
Notice the Virgin’s eyes: they draw you in, soft and reflective, a hallmark of late‑Quattrocento sentimentality. To her left, a small marble pillar breaks the compositional flatness, adding a sculptural touch that feels almost like a miniature relief. Behind them, the landscape unfurls in a Flemish‑style palette—hushed greens, distant hills—linking the work to the northern workshops of the time. The painting’s surface, a delicate blend of tempera and oil, gives it a luminous yet matte quality that changes with the light.
So, while the exact hand that signed this work may still be debated, the Virgin and Child here remains a beautiful snapshot of late‑15th‑century Italian art, infused with northern details and Florentine grace.
See it in person
Virgin and Child hangs in The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House, London. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
