This tondo da camera is a particularly important example of a painting by Jacopo del Sellaio intended for domestic devotional use. The painter produced exquisite works of this kind, some of which were remarkably inventive. He primarily depicted the Madonna adoring the Christ Child in scenes based on the iconography of the Nativity. The present example, however, shows a “Madonna dell’Umiltà” (Madonna of Humility) viewed from the front and seated on a red cushion on the ground, so that the figure fits perfectly into the round format of the composition. The background is made up of an expansive river landscape flanked on both sides by rocks, with bluish tones fading into translucent veils on the horizon. The painter’s approach to the figures in this fantastical landscape, which extends horizontally, is suggestive of the final years of the master’s life, the period around 1490, when the influence of Perugino’s proto- classicism made itself more distinctly felt and a more austere and minimalist composition prevailed in works devoted to the adoration of the Child.
The Virgin and Child, still reminiscent of Botticelli’s compositions, express sweetness and tenderness in their gestures: as she tries to calm and restrain the child’s lively, kicking legs, Christ leans against his mother’s chest in a way that seems extremely natural and typical of a hungry infant, although he is distracted by something happening outside the space of the painted scene. In fact, all of the main figures in the painting are looking outwards: we, the visitors, the onlookers, are the ones disturbing this sacred conversation between mother and son.

The young St John, with a gesture of blessing, presents the Christ child to us as if in a sacred image, and the border of the fabric that passes between the cross and his arm indicates him as he who takes away the sins of the world: ECCE AGNUS DEI QUI TOLLIS [peccatum mundi].

In 1490, Jacopo del Sellaio flaunted his mastery and awareness of his own capabilities, painting a landscape defined by a meandering river that lends depth and atmosphere to the scene, and gradually lightening the tones for the more distant planes. The ample drapery is also formally impressive with its depth, detailed on the sleeves, and transparent as well in the Virgin’s veil. This Madonna and Child looks out as if wanting to know us, observing us, presented by the young St John; Jacopo wants us to engage with his subjects as if with real people.