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The Virgin suckling the Infant Christ

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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The Virgin Mary gazes at the infant Christ who feeds from her breast. The naked child is encircled in his mother’s arms and twists away from us. Our eye is drawn from the Virgin’s delicate fingers, up the line of Christ’s back and to the expression of devotion on her face. Titian appears to be citing a very similar design by Michelangelo and does capture some of the grandeur and strength of his colleague’s figures in the Christ Child’s twisting pose and the Virgin’s heroic build, but he simultaneously brings a painterly softness and tenderness to his picture. The silvery harmonies combine with tremulous brushwork to make the solid forms of the Virgin and Child seem to dissolve into shimmering light. Titian may have kept this painting in his studio and worked on it during the last years of his life.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

The Virgin suckling the Infant Christ

Date

about 1565-75

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 76.2 x W 63.5 cm

Accession number

NG3948

Acquisition method

Mond Bequest, 1924

Work type

Painting

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The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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