Bernardino Luini “Madonna Nursing Jesus” at the Ambrosiana Gallery Pinacoteca in Milan in Italy

Madonna Nursing Jesus

Bernardino Luini (1475-1480 — June 1532) “The Madonna Nursing the Infant Jesus”

Painting - Oil on Canvas (51 x 41 cm) 1520-1530

One of the first known depictions of the Madonna nursing the Infant Jesus dates from the 2nd century and is found in the Catacomb of Priscilla in Rome.

A 13th-century mosaic placed on the facade of Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome also shows us the Madonna nursing Jesus.

These representations were usual in the Middle Ages and the 15th century until the Council of Trent considered that this type of representation of the Madonna was not in accordance with Church doctrine.

Madonna Nursing Jesus But some painters continued to refer to this theme since, in the 17th century, Rubens also painted a Madonna nursing Jesus.

Bernardino Luini's painting is part of this iconographic tradition, which shows us the Madonna and Child Jesus while representing her as a mother tenderly feeding her child.

Everything is beauty and the sweetness of life in this painting, which celebrates motherhood and the religious theme.

Madonna Nursing Jesus