The Adoration of the Child

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The Adoration of the Child

Artist Piero di Cosimo Italian (Florence), 1462-1521

Dateabout 1495-1500

Dimensionsdiam: 63 in. (160 cm)

Mediumoil on wood panel

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1937.1

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 19

Collections

Paintings

Published ReferencesWaagen, G. F., Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London, 1854, II, p. 126.

Von Hermann Ulmann, "Piero Di Cosimo," Jahrbuch der koniglich preussischen Kunstsammlungen, XVII, 1896, p. 126.

Knapp, F., Piero di Cosimo, ein Ubergangsmeister vom Florentiner Quattrocento zum Cinquecento, Halle, 1899, pp. 40-43, repr.

Haberfield, H., Piero di Cosimo, Breslau, 1900, pp. 57-61.

Mancini, G., Viti di Luca Signorelli, Florence, 1903, p. 176.

Berenson, B., The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance, New York, 1909, p. 165.

Venturi, A., Storia dell'arte italiana, Milan, 1911, VII, part I, p. 706.

Crowe, J. A., and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy: Umbria, Florence and Siena, V: Umbrian and Sienese Masters of the Fifteenth Century, (ed. T. Borenius), London, 1914, p. 88, n. 3 (as Signorelli in text; as Piero di Cosimo in editor's annotation).

"The Virgin and Child, by Piero Di Cosimo," Burlington Magazine, XXIX, Dec. 1916, p. 351, repr. p. 350.

Van Marle, R., The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, The Hague, 1931, XIII, pp. 352-353.

Venturi, L., Italian Paintings in America, Milan, 1933, II: Fifteenth Century Renaissance, pl. 288.

Degenhart, B., "Piero di Cosimo," Thieme-Becker, 1933, XXVII, p. 16.

Blake-More Godwin, "An Important Italian Painting," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 78, Mar. 1937, pp. (1103-1112), repr.

Nielson, K. B., Filippino Lippi, Cambridge, 1938, p. 131, fig. 59.

Douglas, R. L., Piero di Cosimo, Chicago, 1946, pp. 18, 41, 43-44, 48, 50, 97, 112, 118-119, 129, pls. XXII-XXV.

Friedmann, Herbert, The Symbolic Goldfinch, (Bollingen series VII); Washington D.C., Pantheon Books, 1946; p. xviii, repr. (det.) pl. 11, and cf. pp. 28-29 (claims bird below Christ's head is a coal-tit, a fertility symbol along with the goldfinch).

Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America, New York, 1941, nos. 127-131.

Morselli, P., "Saggio di un catalogo delle opere di Piero di Cosimo," L'Arte, XXIII, 1958, p. 85.

Grassi, L., Piero di Cosimo e il problema della conversione al cinquecento mella pittura fiorentina ed emiliane, Rome, 1963, p. 54.

Bacci, M., Piero di Cosimo, Milan, 1966, pp. 27-28, 72-73, 80-82, pl. 9.

The Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 126-127, pl. 6.

Bacci, Mina, L'opera completa di Piero di Cosimo, Milan, 1976, no. 14, p. 88, repr. p. 87 and Tav. XV (col.).

Levi D'Ancona, Mirella, The Garden of the Renaissance, Florence, 1977, pp. 128, 201.

Sutton, Denys, "Giotto to Giorgione," Apollo, vol. 110, no. 209, July 1979, p. 48, repr. fig. 8 (det.).

Van Buren, Anne H. "The Canonical Office in Renaissance Painting: Raphael's Madonna at Nones," Art Bulletin, vol. 57, no. 1, March 1975, p. 44, n. 24.

Covi, Dario A., The Inscription in Fifteenth Century Florentine Painting, New York, 1986, [diss. NYU, 1958] pp. 245, 458, fig. 135.

Arbeiter, Achim, Alt-St. Peter in Geschichte und Wissenschaft, Berlin, 1988, pp. 138, 140, 142-143, 148, repr. pp. 107, 108 (det.).

Fermor, Sharon, Piero di Cosimo: Fiction, Invention and "Fantasia", London, 1993, pp. 150, 152-153, 156-157, fig. 72 (col.).

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 66, repr. (col.).

Forlani Tempesti, Anna, Piero di Cosimo: catalogo completo, Firenze, 1996, pp. 108-109, repr. (col.) p. 41.

Olson, Roberta J.M., The Florentine Tondo, New York, 2000, p. 203, 205, fig. 7.27.

Herman, Amy, "Masterpieces of European Painting from the Toledo Museum of Art," The Frick Collection Members' Magazine, Fall 2002, p. 4, repr. (col.).

McMaster, Julie A., The Enduring Legacy: A Pictorial History of the Toledo Museum of Art, Superior Printing, Warren, OH, 2001, p. 32.

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2005, pp. 16-17, repr. (col.) and (det.) p. 17.

Geronimus, Dennis, Piero di Cosimo: Visions Beautiful and Strange, New Haven, Yale, 2006, pp. 166-167, 325, n. 14-18, fig. 125, p. 168 (col.).

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, pp. 120-21, repr. (col.) and (det.).

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2009, pp. 16-17, repr. (col.) and (det.)

Fiorenza, Giancarlo, "Tadpoles, Caterpillars, and Mermaids: Piero di Cosimo's Poetic Nature," Gifts in Return: Essays in Honour of Charles Dempsey, Toronto, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, p. 153-177, fig. 6.1 repr. (col.).

Hirschauer, Gretchen A. and Dennis Geronimus, Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence, Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, 2015, pp. 126-128, repr. (col.) p. 126.

Kennicott, Phillip, "Piero di Cosimo, a Misunderstood Master, at the National Gallery of Art," The Washington Post, January 30, 2015, repr.

Serres, Karen, "Duveen's Italian framemaker, Ferruccio Vannoni," Burlington Magazine, May 2017, vol. CLIX, pp. 366ff, repr. fig. 10.

Elam, Caroline, Roger Fry and Italian Art, London, Paul Holberton Publishing, 2019, p. 258, repr. (col.) fig. 2.76.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of Work of Luca Signorelli and His School, 1893, p. XVI, no. 17.

London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Works of the Old Masters, 1904, no. 33.

New York, Frick Collection, Masterpieces of European Painting from the Toledo Museum of Art, 2002-2003, p. [5], repr. (col.).

Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Florence, Galleria delgi Uffizi, Piero di Cosimo : Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence, Feb. 1-Sept. 27, 2015.

Label TextClosely observed details of nature often carry symbolic meaning in this painting of the Virgin Mary worshiping the Christ Child while her husband Joseph dozes in the background. The barren tree stump, for example, and the tomb-like pile of rock allude to Jesus’ death. The lilies and daisies symbolize Mary’s purity. Look for the tadpoles, 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 of these tondo paintings (from Italian for “round”). The format probably developed from round, painted trays used to present gifts to new mothers. Used almost exclusively for the home, tondi were usually displayed in bedchambers and frequently showed the Virgin and Child as role models for pious domestic behavior. It is believed that a member of the powerful Medici family of Florence gave this particularly large and splendid example to a woman of the Guiducci family.