37. Follower of Pietro Vannucci, called Perugino

Castello della Pieve 1446/47 –1523 Fontignano

Sketches for the Virgin and Child

This page combines fragments from two study sheets of Madonnas, assembled by a collector probably in the eighteenth century. The draughtsman shows little interest in the anatomical correctness of the figures, concentrating rather on the manner of representing their relationship. He has varied the poses of the child and his mother in or­der to describe both their physical and visual contact. The author of the drawing succeeded in transcribing a re­served kind of maternal love, bringing to it the sweetness and serenity of the Virgins and Child painted for private devotion by the artists of central Italy around 1500, in particular in the circle of Perugino.