Detail of Madonna and Child with Seraphim and Cherubim by Andrea Mantegna in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2010

Artist: Andrea Mantegna (Italian, Paduan, born no later than 1430, died 1506)

Title: Madonna and Child with Seraphim and Cherubim

Date: ca. 1460

Medium: Tempera and gold on wood

Dimensions: Arched top, 17 3/8 x 11 1/4 in. (44.1 x 28.6 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931

Accession Number: 32.100.97

Gallery Label:
In this early Madonna and Child, painted in about 1460, Mantegna seems to be experimenting with a pictorial equivalent for the relief sculpture of Donatello, who worked at Padua in the 1440s. This painting in turn inspired the early Madonnas of Mantegna's brother-in-law, Giovanni Bellini.

The picture is badly abraded, but the cherubim on the right are well preserved.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/europe...