\paperw19995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 A cheerful young Madonna is holding out a small white flower to the Child.\par
The latter is looking at it with great inter
est, as if it were his first encounter with the world.\par
In the past, a number of influential critics have stressed this VirginÆs unattractiveness and plainness, with her prominent forehead, swollen cheeks, half-open and apparently toothless mouth and
wrinkled throat.\par
These are the very features that impart an unprecedented tenderness to the figure, however, as well as revealing LeonardoÆs inspiration in Florence, where the picture was probably painted, by a refined sculptor of the previous gene
ration, Desiderio da Settignano.\par
The delicate shading that blurs and softens the profiles is a completely new element, which would eventually give rise to the \i sfumato\i0 that was to become the distinctive feature of the artistÆs style.\par
The
painting, which was originally in the possession of Prince Kurakin, and then the Russian wife of the painter LΘon Benois, was acquired by Czar Nicholas II in 1914.
