Virgin and Child

Verrocchio was a great sculptor as well as painter, one who also worked in relief and in precious metals. Such versatility is found even in two dimensions, for the painter’s Madonna and Child has a sense of the oblique, of outreach and exchange. Exploration of landscape and an equally keen concern for light’s passage and of chiaroscuro are often part of the painter-sculptor’s concerns. Here, fascination for mysterious coils of drapery and twisted veils, for the dynamic found even in the row of ties along Mary’s sleeve, bespeak a new role for the artist, one enhanced by technical variety and virtuosity.