Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child by Lavinia Fontana (Interpretation and Analysis)

Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child
Source: Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Today, I want to return to talking about the Mannerist movement. As I explained last month, Mannerism was a style that emerged in the as a reaction against the Renaissance obsession with proportionality and naturalism. Mannerism is typically characterized by purposeful distortion of the human form and a general sense of artificiality combined with artistic extravagance. Mannerism is a truly odd style, which is one of the reasons mannerist paintings are so visually interesting.

Lavinia Fontana was one of great Italian mannerists of the sixteenth century and also happens to be one of the first Western, female artists with a well-documented career (there, of course, were many female artists before the sixteenth century, but their work was often anonymous or misattributed).

At only six inches long Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child is one of Fontana's smallest paintings; however, it holds several layers of symbolic meaning. The painting depicts Mary, gazing down at the Christ Child, who sleeps on an open-sided bed. The image captures a moment of movement; the Madonna’s arms stretch across the composition, calling attention to the cloth she is drawing over the child. Although the piece ostensibly represents the loving relationship of a mother and child—a relationship that would have had special significance to Fontana, who was herself the mother of eleven children—there are references to Christ’s Passion and death here.

The position and pallor of the child’s body are reminiscent of a corpse, and, as the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston notes, “the bed suggests a sarcophagus.” Even the cloth that Mary draws over the child can be seen as a reference to Christ's death shroud, which is described in detail in various books of the Bible.

Mary’s expression hints at deep ambivalence, suggesting both a mother’s love and the grief she will eventually endure upon the death of her son. Although it was fairly common for contemporary artists to use depictions of the Christ Child to foreshadow his death (Parmigianino’s Madonna with the Long Neck, which I mentioned last month, does the same thing), Fontana’s approach brings a new level of reality and psychological complexity to the subject. Her depiction of Mary reveals a deep understanding of the human experience and an appreciation of Mary's duel roles of mother and a pious woman who understands the part her son plays within God's plan.

Disclaimer: I’m not an art historian or an expert on this topic. The above is my opinion, based on my interpretation of my foreknowledge of art and history. If I’ve done any additional research, I’ll note it above.