Madonna and Sleeping Child

There are three outstanding works by Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506) in the BerlinState Museen. The most intimate, tender and poetic of them is undoubtedly the Madonna and Sleeping Child. Belonging to the Gemäldegalerie, it is now displayed at the Bode-Museum.

Over a simple, dark blue robe, the Virgin wears a cape or cloak of sumptuous gold brocade, decorated with a pomegranate motif. It protectively envelops the mother and her tiny sleeping child.

With her left hand, the Virgin holds the baby close to her. The infant is tightly wrapped in swaddling bands.

With her right hand she carefully supports his head.

Her cheek is pressed tenderly against the baby’s head. Fair curls escape from beneath the veil which covers her hair.

The positioning of her hands conveys a sense of intimate security, yet the expression on her face and her far-away gaze convey a feeling of melancholy. They seem to foreshadow Christ’s coming Passion and the sorrow of the Mother of God. Similarly, Christ's sleep heralds his early death.

The intimate delicacy of the depiction is achieved by a painting technique which was still rare at the time the painting was made, but which was particularly favoured by Mantegna: the application of extremely thin layers of distemper on unprimed linen canvas.

The fine canvas weave shows through the paint and gives the Virgin’s face a particularly fragile appearance.

Set off against the dark background, the outline of the kerchief is continued by the nape of the neck and the shoulder and, finally, the border of the golden cloak.

By emphasizing these lines, Mantegna creates a strong boundary encircling the two figures in the painting. The effect is to bind the Virgin and her child even more intimately together. The painting was donated to the Berlin museums by their greatest patron, James Simon, on condition that it remain on display in the same cabinet for a century. The cabinet was dismantled during the Nazi era, and only reconstructed in 2019. This is why Mantegna's Madonna is now in the Bode-Museum, along with the other works donated by James Simon.