Year 1480s Location Gemäldegalerie, Berlin Created 1481 | Medium Oil on panel Artist Pinturicchio | |
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Dimensions 49.5 cm × 38 cm (19.5 in × 15 in) Similar Crucifixion between Sts Jero, Madonna with Writing Child, Madonna with Writing Child and, Saint Jerome in the Wilde, Semi‑Gods Ceiling | ||
The Madonna with Writing Child and St. Jerome is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Pinturicchio, painted around 1481 and housed in the Gemäldegalerie of Berlin, Germany.
Description
The painting shows an infrequent composition, with the Virgin holding the Child who writes on a book, an allusion to his intervention in the Holy Books. On the right is St. Jerome, recognizable by his cardinal dress, leaving a book on the marble throne where the Madonna sits: in this case this is one of his traditional attributes of knowledge.
Jesus wears a pearl-lined coif which can be seen in another Pinturicchio's work of the period, the Crucifixion between Sts. Jerome and Christoper (c. 1475), now at the Borghese Gallery. The theme, used also by Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, was later abandoned by the Umbrian artist in favour of a free, curly hair.
On the right is an open landscape, a typical element of the Renaissance Umbrian school.