1447 -1500 · Siena and Sienese Renaissance

Delicate faces, refined lines and luminous gold make Landi's Neroccio one of the most elegant interpreters of the Sienese Renaissance.

Neroccio di Bartolomeo de' Landi was born in Siena in 1447 and died there in 1500. Painter and sculptor, he worked in a city where the Gothic heritage remained alive in the heart of the Renaissance. In the 1460s and 1470s, he collaborated with Francesco di Giorgio Martini before pursuing an independent career. His art is distinguished by slender figures, faces with fine features, graceful hands and a light color placed on gold backgrounds or landscapes delicate. The Virgin and Child between Saint John the Baptist and Saint Anthony brings the figures together in an intimate space: the dialogue of looks and gestures replaces narration. The Madonna with Saint Jerome and Saint Mary Magdalene associates the Child with two complementary forms of penance and devotion. Saint Michael shows the other side of the painter, capable of giving the archangel a courteous elegance without weakening his warlike function. The National Gallery of Art preserves several works that shed light on this diversity, including a Madonna with Saint Anthony the Abbot and Saint Sigismund around 1490 -1495, Claudia Quinta and a rare female portrait. Neroccio thus extends the linear poetry of Siena while integrating portrait, landscape and new observation of human presence. The "Neroccio de' Landi" selection notably compares The Virgin and Child between Saint John the Baptist and Saint Anthony and Madonna and Child with Saints Jerome and Mary Magdalen. His reading favors atmosphere.

Landi's Neroccio makes grace a structure: the outline, the gaze and the hand silently connect the figures in a golden light.