Virgin and Child with the infant Saint John the Baptist, before a landscape, in a tondo (La Madonna del Lago)
Original title: Virgin and Child with the infant Saint John the Baptist, before a landscape, in a tondo (La Madonna del Lago)
kurzbeschreibung
A round format, or tondo, shapes this 1825 engraving by Giuseppe Longhi, which gathers the Madonna, the Christ Child and the young John the Baptist. The three figures sit within a mountainous setting that includes a lake, and their placement holds a central, mirror-like balance.
Description
The Madonna has taken her place on a rock, the child resting on her lap and stretching out a hand. Beside her kneels John the Baptist, touching the child's hand. Beyond them opens a peaceful stretch of country with mountains, trees and a body of water. Shades of grey govern the whole sheet, light falls evenly, and the neoclassical manner relies on clear contours and carefully worked drapery folds and landscape passages.
Context
The Italian Giuseppe Longhi was known as an engraver who reproduced famous paintings with great precision. His model was a painting by Raphael that became known under the name 'Madonna del Lago'. Longhi made the print in 1825, in an age when reproductive graphics did much to bring works of art to a wider public.
Impact
Calm and balance reach the viewer through the even arrangement and the quiet landscape. Delicate lines and graded greys give the sheet a noble, neoclassical character that invites a quiet pause before the image.
Technique
For this engraving the drawing was cut into a copper plate and afterwards printed on paper. In the fine hatching and the transitions of grey, Longhi's sure command of the process can be read.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)