The Virgin Teaching the Christ Child to Read by Pinturicchio in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, August 2009

Virgin Teaching the Christ Child to Read

Pinturicchio (Bernardino di Betto), Italian (active central Italy), 1454 - 1513

Geography: Made in Rome, Italy, Europe

Date: c. 1494-97

Medium: Oil and gold on panel

Dimensions: 24 1/8 x 16 1/2 inches (61.3 x 41.9 cm)

Curatorial Department: European Painting before 1900, Johnson Collection

Object Location: Gallery 251, European Art 1500-1850, second floor

Accession Number: Inv. 1336

Credit Line: John G. Johnson Collection, 1917

Label:
Tales of the Virgin teaching her son to read come from the very popular thirteenth-century text Meditations on the Life of Christ, which narrated many incidents not found in the Bible. The two appear here in the foreground of a landscape in which two other scenes are shown: on the left the Holy Family's flight into Egypt, and on the right the young John the Baptist's retreat into the wilderness.

Text from: www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/103594.html?mulR=1856399380|2