Virgin and Child

Why it matters

This statue is a scaled-down version of a marble figure the sculptor and architect Jacopo Sansovino carved for the funerary monument of a nobleman in Verona, Italy. Balancing the stable mass of the Virgin with the seemingly weightless, elongated child draped gracefully across her torso, the composition illustrates Sansovino’s skill. After training in Florence, he relocated to Rome before eventually settling in Venice in 1527. Sansovino contributed significantly to public and private projects across the region, from important civic buildings and tomb sculpture to intimately scaled bronzes, such as this example from his early Venetian period.