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Francesco Pesellino - Virgin and Child, about 1453 - 1457

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This vertical tempera on panel depicts the Virgin Mary holding the child Jesus Christ. The light-skinned Mary can be seen to our right. She is seated and is wearing a red dress with a green cape and a black head covering. Under the covering is a thin, almost translucent, vail that falls at her forehead. The cape is tied at her chest. She’s wearing a thin red headpiece around her blonde braided hair. She has a yellow halo above her head. She’s looking at the baby Jesus in her arms with her pale brown eyes. Mary has thin, light brown eyebrows and her lips are pink. The light-skinned baby Jesus is to our left, on Mary’s lap, and looking at you. He is wearing a neutral colored drape around his stomach and thighs. He is holding a brown bird in his left hand. He has a yellow halo above his head that has a red cross on it. He has the same blonde hair and light brown eyes that Mary has. The pair are in front of a marbled façade, with a clamshell decoration behind Mary’s head. 

Francesco Pesellino (Florence, about 1422 - 1457, Florence)

Virgin and Child with a Swallow, about 1453 - 1457

Tempera on panel , 59.7 x 39.5 cm (23 1/2 x 15 9/16 in.)

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Commentary


The most innovative painter in mid fifteenth-century Florence, Pesellino worked for Cosimo de’ Medici and Pope Nicholas V. This painting of the Virgin and Child with a swallow was one of the most reproduced paintings in fifteenth century Florence. Positioned in an architectural niche, the Virgin tenderly supports her child and bows her head, while the Christ Child meets the eye of the viewer and holds a swallow--a symbol of the resurrection.



Isabella was a pioneer in collecting Renaissance paintings, and this panel was the first work by Pesellino in an American collection.