Piero di Cosimo
Italian (Florence), 1462-1521

While her husband Joseph dozes in the background, the Virgin Mary kneels in a lush landscape, worshiping the sleeping Christ Child. Many of the details of the landscape carry symbolic meaning. The barren tree stump and the tomb-like pile of rock allude to Jesus’ death. The lilies and daisies symbolize Mary’s purity. The tadpoles in the pool are symbols of Jesus’ resurrection because they represent both new life and transformation (“fish” into frog).

A contemporary of fellow Florentines Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, and Michelangelo, Piero di Cosimo painted many round, or tondo, paintings. The format probably developed from round, painted wood trays used to present gifts to new mothers. Tondi were often displayed in bedchambers and frequently showed the Virgin and Child as role models for pious domestic behavior. A member of the powerful Medici family is believed to have given this particularly large and splendid example to a woman of the Guiducci family.

Oil on wood panel, about 1495-1500
Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1937.1