Bernardino Zenale
The Madonna Adoring the Child with Musical Angels

Circa 1500-1510
Oil on panel
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

This is an idealized variation on the usual iconography derived from the vision of Bridget of Sweden. As in that tradition Mary kneels before the child, who lies naked on the ground. But the artist suppresses other details from Bridget's vision (the cave, the beasts, St. Joseph, the candle) and adds the musical angels and a landscape with crags, trees, and a river.

The child's genitals, which were boldly pictured in Madonnas of the previous century, are partly hidden by his left thigh. As the 16th century progressed, artists evinced a greater reluctance to be so frank.

Angels singing in Heaven from a shared songbook were a common device in this century. See this page for more examples.

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Read more about images derived from Bridget of Sweden's vision.

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• The Birth of Jesus
• This Picture

Photographed at the museum by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.