The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John, known as the Taddei Tondo, is the only marble sculpture by Michelangelo in a UK collection
He presents a bird to the infant Christ, who momentarily turns towards his mother, symbolically anticipating his future destiny; the bird is widely believed to be a goldfinch, which represents the Christ’s Passion, the time of suffering before his Crucifixion, because a goldfinch is said to have removed a thorn from Christ’s crown when he was carrying the cross. While it’s often thought that Christ’s reaching away from the bird and towards his mother expresses his fear, more recently other scholars have argued that Christ’s pose is playful as the goldfinch was a common pet in this period.
Size: 7015px × 4960px
Photo credit: © steeve-x-art / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: child, marble, michelangelo, sculpture, taddei, tondo, virgin
