The ''Madonna of the Red Cherubim'' is an

oil-on-panel A panel painting is a painting made on a flat panel of wood, either a single piece or a number of pieces joined together. Until canvas became the more popular support medium in the 16th century, panel painting was the normal method, when not paint ...

painting by Italian Renaissance artist

Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 26 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father ...

, completed around 1485. Stylistic elements such as the child on one of the Virgin's knees, and the mutual glance, suggest that the work was based on Bellini's ''

Alzano Madonna The ''Madonna with Child'', or ''Alzano Madonna'', is an oil-on-panel painting by Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini, executed around 1485. History The work has been in Bergamo since as early as the 16th century, where it likely arriv ...

'' in the

Accademia Carrara The Accademia Carrara, (), officially Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti di Bergamo, is an art gallery and an academy of fine arts in Bergamo, in Lombardy in northern Italy. The art gallery was established in about 1780 by , a Bergamasco collect ...

Description

The

Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

and

Child A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

are portrayed in the foreground, before a typical landscape with towers, castles and a fluvial inlet with a small boat. The bright sky features a series of red

cherubim A cherub (; plural cherubim; he, כְּרוּב ''kərūḇ'', pl. ''kərūḇīm'', likely borrowed from a derived form of akk, 𒅗𒊏𒁍 ''karabu'' "to bless" such as ''karibu'', "one who blesses", a name for the lamassu) is one of the u ...

which give their name to the picture. Also typical of Bellini is the parapet in the lower part, although this time he did not add the cartouche with the signature.

Sources

* {{Giovanni Bellini Red Cherubim 1480s paintings

Description

See also

Sources