Virgin of the Long Thigh; the Virgin reclining on the ground her left leg outstretched supporting the infant Christ who reaches across to the infant John the Baptist, Joseph seated at left, buildings in the background 1513 - 1523

Marco Dente’s "Virgin of the Long Thigh" is an etching, completed sometime between 1513 and 1523, that depicts the Virgin Mary reclining on the ground as she holds her son Christ. The infant John the Baptist kneels before the Virgin, and St. Joseph sits contemplatively on the left side of the image, surrounded by ruins. Dente has emphasized the dramatic foreshortening of Mary's leg, creating the effect of the title's "long thigh" that has become central to the image. The work is located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.