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Woman holding seated child in left arm

A light-skinned Virgin Mary in red and black robes holds a light-skinned, seated child Jesus in her left arm, supporting his right foot with her right hand. Both mother and child have flushed skin and pronounced lower eyelids. The child’s proportions suggest later childhood or adulthood rather than infancy, in contrast to his small size. He grasps his mother’s chin with his right hand and places his left palm on her chest. His robes are green and red. The painting shows signs of aging, including cracked paint and places where the paint has rubbed off.

Gallery Text

In the late Middle Ages, Christian spirituality increasingly focused on the salvation of individual souls. Devotional practice was no longer confined to the liturgy, but was supplemented with private prayer. Individuals acquired their own prayer books, and the growing aristocratic and bourgeois classes commissioned small devotional works, like the portable ivory shown here. The invention of printmaking led to the proliferation of sacred images, some inspired by earlier manuscript illuminations. Other objects, like the bronze plaque here, were in turn modeled after prints.

[1946.56, 1957.217, 1962.282, BR65.10]

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1962.282
People
Circle of Cenni di Pepo, called Cimabue, Italian (1240 - 1302)
Title
The Virgin and Child
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1295
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Italy, Tuscany, Florence
Culture
Italian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/228235

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2440, Medieval Art
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Tempera on panel
Dimensions
23.81 x 17.46 cm (9 3/8 x 6 7/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
A. Kingsley Porter; to Lucy Wallace Porter (his wife), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1962.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Lucy Wallace Porter
Accession Year
1962
Object Number
1962.282
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1972), p. 217 [as unknown Florence 13th century]
  • Edward B. Garrison, Italian Romanesque Panel Painting: An Illustrated Index, Leo S. Olschki (Florence, 1972), p. 55, cat. no. 78, repr.
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990)

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 2440 Medieval, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu