Piero di Cosimo
The Adoration of the Child
about 1495-1500, oil on wood panel
Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1937.1
This large round painting (called a “tondo”) of The Adoration of the Child by the Italian Renaissance artist, Piero di Cosimo, was designed for a Florentine home as a model of pious devotion. A kneeling Virgin Mary, swathed in the folds of her blue outer robes, holds her hands out in prayer before the sleeping Christ child. A prayer book, open to the Paul’s First Epistle to the Hebrews, proclaims, “And Thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth.” Christ’s small, fleshy body is tilted toward the viewer and accentuated by chiaroscuro highlights, offered for devotion. Delicately rendered foliage and other landscape details contribute symbolic layers of meaning toward the theme of Christ as redeemer. Paintings such as this were often hung in the bedchamber, intended for the viewing edification of a mother-to-be or mother. The rocky configuration of the landscape and distant mountain views are stylistically related to Leonardo da Vinci, whose fame has eclipsed Piero di Cosimo’s artistic innovations until recent years.
Sources:
Toledo Museum of Art: http://emuseum.toledomuseum.org/objects/54744/the-adoration-of-the-child?ctx=247bcdc8-b7a1-45d1-bb7f-ffd12f6b7dac&idx=0
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