In a modest corner of the Uffizi museum stands Correggio’s masterpiece Adoration of the Christ Child. Most visitors will pass it by without a glance, or at most the customary thirty-second regard followed by a nod towards its information plaque. But it deserves and rewards focus and attention. At least three things stand out: the quality of the light that seems to shine from within (impossible to reproduce in the digitized, flattened version) ; the graceful pose of Mary’s hands ; and the innocent expression of the child, depicted as an actual baby rather than a miniature adult.
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