How you can use this image

This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).

Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.

The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.

Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.

Buy a print or image licence

You can purchase this reproduction

If you have any products in your basket we recommend that you complete your purchase from Art UK before you leave our site to avoid losing your purchases.

Order a print

Notes

Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.

The picture has been transferred from its original panel and placed onto a canvas, a process that has damaged the paint surface. Nevertheless, the composition, where the Virgin is placed behind a ledge and in front of a cloth, shows Montagna’s artistic debt to his teacher Giovanni Bellini. The sheen on the Virgin’s headdress as it drapes over her shoulder, catching the light, is also inspired by Bellini.

The Virgin is shown worshipping the Christ Child as he sleeps. Christ’s swaddling covers only half of his body and is intended to remind the viewer of a burial shroud; his pose – slumped against the marble wall, legs extended across the ledge – is supposed to recall his dead body in the tomb. The viewer is reminded that he is not an ordinary baby but the Son of God whose death, Christians believe, was for their salvation.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

The Virgin and Child

Date

perhaps about 1504-6

Medium

Oil on canvas, transferred from wood

Measurements

H 59 x W 51 cm

Accession number

NG1098

Acquisition method

Bought, 1881

Work type

Painting

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

This venue is open to the public. Not all artworks are on display. If you want to see a particular artwork, please contact the venue.

View venue

Artist or maker

Bartolomeo Montagna

c.1450–1523

View profile

Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saint James Major and Saint John the Evangelist Glasgow Museums Resource Centre (GMRC)
The Virgin and Child Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Christ carrying the cross Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
The Marriage of Antiochus and Stratonice Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
An Incident in the Story of the Vestal Claudia Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Study of Arm and Hands The Fitzwilliam Museum
Holy Family The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)
10 more