Madonna col Bambino

Girolamo dai Libri's Madonna and Child (Madonna col Bambino) is one of his numerous autonomous devotional images combining his illuminator's precision with the compositional warmth of the Venetian sacra conversazione tradition. The intimate half-length or three-quarter format for the Virgin and Child, without accompanying saints but with rich landscape background, was among the most commercially productive formats in northern Italian devotional painting, appealing to private patrons who desired quality without the expense of a full altarpiece. Dai Libri's characteristic clear light and precise figure drawing give these intimate devotional images a meditative quality suited to private prayer.

The devotional composition is rendered with attention to the expressive and contemplative qualities that served the painting's function as an aid to prayer and meditation.