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c. 1494-1497

Virgin Teaching the Christ Child to Read

Pinturicchio (Bernardino di Betto)

Italian (active central Italy), 1454 - 1513

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.

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