The Christ Child: Intimacy and Innocence in Renaissance Art

A pomegranate offered with tenderness, a boy extracting a thorn from his foot, a mother pressing her cheek against her son's head—Renaissance artists discovered the profound humanity of childhood. From Italian tempera panels to Venetian bronzes, this tour traces how the Christ Child transformed from a distant symbol into a living, breathing presence, revealing how artists learned to capture the tender bonds between mother and child, and the vulnerability of youth itself.