This intimate relief, titled Virgin and Child (c. 1450–1500), is the work of Desiderio da Settignano, one of the most sensitive sculptors of the early Italian Renaissance. It is currently housed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon.

Carved in marble and delicately tinted with traces of polychromy, the work reveals Desiderio’s remarkable ability to combine softness of modeling with emotional warmth. The Virgin, shown in close embrace with the Christ Child, bends her head gently toward Him, her face calm and contemplative. The Child responds with a tender gesture, reaching his small arms toward His mother, their cheeks nearly touching. This exchange of affection, so human and immediate, was a hallmark of Desiderio’s style, departing from the more hieratic and solemn Madonnas of earlier Florentine art.

The relief’s subtle modeling and play of light across the stone create an almost painterly effect. The surface still shows remnants of gilding and pigment, indicating that it was once vividly colored. The dotted halo pattern behind the figures is characteristic of Desiderio’s decorative sensibility and mastery of shallow carving, or stiacciato, a technique refined by his predecessor Donatello.

This sculpture exemplifies the devotional imagery popular in 15th-century Florence, intended for private contemplation rather than public altars. Desiderio’s Virgin and Child captures both the divine and the profoundly human—embodying Renaissance ideals of grace, naturalism, and emotional truth.