''Virgin and Child'' is an unfinished c.1527-1528 oil on panel painting by Parmigianino, now in the

Courtauld Gallery The Courtauld Gallery () is an art museum in Somerset House, on the Strand in central London. It houses the collection of the Courtauld Institute of Art, a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the hist ...

in London. As it is usually identified with one which Giorgio Vasari sketched in Bologna and later bought for himself, it is sometimes also known as the Vasari Madonna. The work passed through unknown hands after Vasari, eventually ending up in Lord Kinnard's collection, from whose successors

Antoine Seilern Count Antoine Seilern (17 September 1901 – 6 July 1978) was an Anglo-Austrian art collector and art historian. He was considered, along with Sir Denis Mahon, to be one of a handful of important collectors who was also a respected scholar. The ...

acquired it via Colnaghi in 1965 before bequeathing it to the Courtauld in 1978. A preparatory drawing in the Albertina in Vienna shows an angel omitted from the final work. The architectural background of the painting is complete, but traces of the underdrawing and preparation still show behind both the Madonna and Child, with much of her mantle still unpainted. That background draws on Roman examples and refers to

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...

's Madonnas, whilst the Madonna's pose draws on that of the

Erythraean Sibyl The Erythraean Sibyl was the prophetess of classical antiquity presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Erythrae, a town in Ionia opposite Chios, which was built by Neleus, the son of Codrus. The word ''Sibyl'' comes (via Latin) from the anc ...

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

's Sistine Chapel ceiling and a very similar Christ Child appears in Parmigianino's '' Santa Margherita Madonna'' (1530). Some critics argue that this dates the work to his stay in Rome just before moving to Bologna, Mario Di Giampaolo and Elisabetta Fadda, ''Parmigianino'', Keybook, Santarcangelo di Romagna 2002. whilst others theorise he may have left it incomplete due to the Sack of Rome in 1527.

References

{{Parmigianino 1529 paintings Paintings in the Courtauld Gallery Paintings of the Madonna and Child by Parmigianino