Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist, Saint Cecilia, and Angels

c. 1505

Piero di Cosimo
Italian, 1461/62–1521

One of the most unorthodox artists in Renaissance Florence, Piero di Cosimo created paintings full of imaginative inventions that enliven traditional themes. Here, John the Baptist offers plums to the infant Jesus, who eagerly devours one while another lies half-eaten on the ground. At right, Saint Cecilia, patron of musicians, sings from a book of music, while wingless angels look on in the background.

The shadowed effect in the figures surrounding the Virgin and Child indicate that Piero altered his plans for the composition after he had begun painting: the artist painted them on top of the dark background color, which shows through the thin layers of paint on the surface.

Status: On View, Gallery 205
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Piero di Cosimo
Title: Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist, Saint Cecilia, and Angels
Place: Italy (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1500–1510
Medium: Oil on poplar panel
Dimensions: Diam.: 75 cm (29 9/16 in.)
Credit Line: Lacy Armour Fund
Reference Number: 2007.77
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/188974/manifest.json

Mina Bacci, Piero di Cosimo (Milan: Bramante Editrice, 1966), p. 90, no. 32, ill.
Francesco Abbate, “Scelta di libri: Piero di Cosimo di Mina Bacci,” Paragone, no. 215 (January 1968), p. 77.
Mina Bacci, L’Opera completa di Piero di Cosimo (Milan: Rizzoli Editore, 1976), p. 100, no. 70, ill.
Geraldine Norman, “Marché: Les Maîtres Anciens en haut de la vague,” Connaissance des Arts, no. 451 (September 1989), pp. 20-21, ill.
Sharon Fermor, Piero di Cosimo. Fiction, invention, and ‘fantasìa’ (London: Reaktion Books, 1993), pp. 140, 145, 216, nn. 26-27 (ill. in color).
Anna Forlani Tempesti and Elena Capretti, Piero di Cosimo. Catalogo completo (Florence: Octavo, 1996), p. 119, no. 29, ill.
Roberta J.M. Olson, The Florentine Tondo (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 98, 252–53, fig. A48.
Elena Capretti, “Piero di Cosimo: un’opera ritrovata: II. Il dipinto, ” Arte Cristiana, vol. 90, no. 808 (January/February 2002), p. 28, n. 7.
Dennis Geronimus, The Painting Career of Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1522, Doctoral Thesis, Oxford University, 2000, vol. 1, pp. 171–72; vol. 2, p. 29, fig. 60.
Dennis Geronimus, Piero di Cosimo: Visions Beautiful and Strange (New Haven: Yale University Press), 2006, pp. 258–62, 339–40, fig. 202.
Larry J. Feinberg, “Notable Acquisitions at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 34, no. 1 (2008), p. 56, ill. p. 57.
Maurizia Tazartes, Piero di Cosimo: ‘ingegno astratto e difforme’ (Florence: Mauro Pagliai, 2010), pp. 99–101, ill.

Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, July 2001–March 2003
Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, Piero di Cossimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florance, February 1-May 3, 2015, cat. 27; Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, June 23-September 27, 2015.

Private collection, Scotland; acquired by Madame Miriam Gilou-Cendrars and her husband, Albert Gilou, early 1930s; Gilou-Cendrars collection, France; sold Roubaix, France, J. Mercier, J. Velliet, D. Thullier, F. Issaly, June 18, 1989, lot 84; bought by Richard L. Feigen Co., New York; sold to the Art Institute, 2007.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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