Virgin and Child
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet (Trimmed): 5 1/4 × 3 7/8 in. (13.4 × 9.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951
Accession Number
51.501.4627
Art Historical Context
Behold the tender *Virgin and Child* (1776), an etching to Italian artists Giovanni David and Domenicovi. Created during the late 18th century, this intimate print captures the timeless Christian motif of the Madonna cradling the infant Jesus, a subject central to devotional art for centuries. Measuring just 5¼ × 3⅞ inches, its trimmed sheet size suggests it was designed for personal piety or collectors' albums, evoking quiet reverence in modest spaces. Etching, the medium here, exemplifies a revolutionary printmaking technique perfected in the Renaissance and flourishing into the Rococo era....
About the Artist
Giovanni David|Domenico Corvi · 1749–1790
Giovanni David (1743–1790) was a Genoese painter and etcher whose brief career, shaped by distinguished patronage and wide-ranging travel, produced a body of work remarkable for its experimental verve. Born in Genoa, he came under the protection of Count Giacomo Durazzo, a cultivated Genoese nobleman and diplomat who became the defining figure of his artistic life. Durazzo sponsored David's traini...