Virgin and Child

Ercole de’ Roberti worked in Bologna and, from 1486, in Ferrara, where he was associated with the brilliant court of the ruling Este family. Whereas his earlier works possess an almost frenzied emotional intensity, this late Virgin and Child is calmer, expressing a gentler melancholy. Roberti’s mannerisms are nevertheless evident in the exaggerated, slender fingers of the Virgin, which seem to barely hold the Christ Child, even as they press into his flesh.