Virgin and Child
by FOPPA, Vincenzo, Poplar, 57 x 41 cm
Stoical yet sad, Foppa’s Virgin and Child betrays traces of Gothic intensity but the powerfully blocked out forms of mother and Child point to new developments initiated by Fra Filippo Lippi and followed by Piero della Francesca and Mantegna. Here Mary and Jesus take on the roles of the new, redemptive Adam and Eve, symbolized by the Virgin holding a fruit for her Son’s taking.