The Virgin of the Green Cushion

PLEASE NOTE: This work is not currently on display in the museum.

The Virgin of the Green Cushion

Andrea Solario

The painter Andrea Solario was a contemporary of the great Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci, who influenced the style of his work. This religious image of the Virgin and Child is set against a pastoral background that does not resemble a biblical landscape or the countryside in Solario’s native region of Veneto; this gives the painting a sense of timelessness and helps focus attention on the true, universally recognisable subject of the scene: motherhood. The loving gaze between mother and child, the way the baby plays with his foot and the velvety softness of the famous green cushion (which gave the painting its name) all express the pure joy of motherly love.