Virgin with the Christ Child in Swaddling Clothes

In the mature period of Luca Cambiaso - to which the present painting belongs - the palette of the devotional paintings is restricted to a few colours and the scenes are illumined by a cold, motionless, conceptual light rather than the warm flickering light of the candle, suspending as it were the time of the narrative. The small canvas, painted for private devotion, as the format also suggests, epitomizes most completely Cambiaso’s tendency to simplify and convey an intimate atmosphere.