Madonna and Sleeping Christ Child with the Infant St John the Baptist

This circular painting shows Mary kneeling in a blue and green robe, focused on a small handheld volume. Beside her, the Christ Child sleeps on a blue mantle, while the infant John the Baptist kneels in adoration with his hands pressed together. The background features a large craggy rock and a distant scene of Joseph leading a donkey, suggesting the Flight into Egypt.

The sleeping posture of the Christ Child serves as a visual prefiguration of the dead Christ, functioning as a subtle memento mori within a devotional context. Piero di Cosimo's emphasis on the rugged, untamed landscape reflects a Renaissance fascination with the primitive state of nature, an interest often linked to Lucretian philosophy and the intellectual environment of the Medici circle.