Madonna of the Goldfinch

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the chest up, a young woman faces us holding a nude baby in her arms in this vertical painting. They both have pale, peachy skin with pink cheeks. The woman has an oval face with a thin nose, and her coral-pink, bow mouth is closed. She looks down and to our left with dark eyes under arched brows. Her hair is covered by a bone-white veil, and an azure-blue mantle is draped over her rose-pink robe, which is a darker pink at the shoulders. She cradles the plump child in her crossed arms. The baby has short, wavy, copper-red hair framing a round, flushed face with a button nose, peach lips, and hazel eyes that look at us. He holds a bird in his left hand, on our right. The bird has an off-white body with charcoal-gray wings and neck, and a strawberry-red face. The baby grasps one end of the woman’s veil with his other hand. The background is concrete gray to our left, and the right half is covered by a ginger-brown curtain.