Core Record

This picture, a copy of a detail from a larger composition by Correggio, shows the Virgin and Child, painted with a distinct echo of the work of Leonardo da Vinci, at the centre of a group. On the left stands an angel, diverting the Christ Child with a book. On the right sits a female saint who holds the baby's left foot while his hand rest on her hair.

Copies of Old Master paintings were extremely popular in the eighteenth century, and from mid-century, when the stream of Grand Tourists travelling to Italy increased due to greater ease of travel, such copies were frequently commissioned by travellers. Correggio was one of the ‘big names' of Italian art, and copies such as this would have been made of several of his works in order for travellers to enjoy his pictures in their own homes.