St. Nicholas presents Students to Virgin and Child

This oil was painted by Il Moretto and is located in the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Brescia, located along Corso Martiri della Libertà. The painting depicts the Madonna with the Child Jesus on her lap seated on a high pedestal from which falls a drape, a widespread compositional element in the shovels of Moretto and here, and only here in all her artistic production, seen foreshortened rather than frontally as in all other cases. At his feet, four children, the pupils of Galeazzo Rovelli, are approaching accompanied by Saint Nicholas of Bari : the two in the foreground bear one a miter and the other a book and three golden spheres, all attributes linked to the iconography of St. Nicholas. In the background, behind the saint, two other children can be seen.