MIA - Renaissance

Cassone (chest)

Unknown artist

c. 1600

Italy

Walnut, gilt

Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist and a Clerical Donor

Lippo Vanni

c. 1350-1360

Italian (Siena)

Tempera and gold leaf on panel

79.19

Lamentation of Christ

Hans Schnatterpeck

1490s

Austria

Pine, polychromed and gilt

2011.2

The lifeless body of Jesus Christ, taken off the cross after his crucifixion, rests in his mother Mary’s lap. John the Evangelist holds his head. Mary Magdalene, with an ointment jar, looks at his feet—according to the Gospel of Saint John, she had once anointed Jesus’s feet with expensive perfume. The angular folds and gestures in this painting, as well as the bold colors, are typical of late Gothic wood sculpture and greatly influenced the Expressionist artists of the early 20th century. This sculpture is remarkable for its large amount of original coloring.

Madonna and Child

Segna di Buonaventura

c. 1310

Italian (Siena)

Tempera and gold ground on poplar panel

87.64

Mary, the mother of Jesus, insists you look her in the eye. She has long inspired intense devotion. Christians believed that a relationship with her would bring them closer to her son, and worshippers identified with her role as a mother. Segna portrays them both as very human and approachable—Jesus plays with his doting mother’s fingers like any other baby. Yet his erect posture and serious countenance convey the wisdom and spiritual authority of the man he would become. The painting was once the central part of a five-panel altarpiece and was likely cut down in the 1800s to fit this frame.

Madonna and Child Enthroned

Nicola di Maestro Antonio (di Ancona)

c. 1490

Italian (The Marche)

Tempera and oil on panel

75.53

Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints

Bernardo Daddi

1339

Italian (Florence)

Tempera and gold ground on poplar panel

34.20

This small portable triptych was undoubtedly made for personal devotion. The enthroned Virgin and Child are accompanied by Saints Helena and Peter (left), and Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Paul (right). On the left wing is a scene of St. Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata (the same wounds Christ suffered on the Cross); on the right wing is a scene of the Crucifixion, with the mourning Virgin and St. John the Evangelist.

Bernardo Daddi was a close follower of Giotto, the artist who first fully expressed the sculptural solidity of the human form. He was also influenced by the Sienese school, evident here in his lyrical sense of line and the subtle tonal variation.

Madonna and Child with Grapes

Lucas Cranach the Elder

German

c. 1537

Oil on panel

68.41.4

Lucas Cranach the Elder worked in a time of religious upheaval. Martin Luther (a close associate of Cranach) led the Protestant Reformation challenging the Catholic Church, arguing that man could have a direct relationship with God without the need for a priest to intermediate.

Cranach adapted familiar Catholic imagery to the Protestant Reformation. The image of Mary as a half-figure with her son Jesus Christ as a little man standing on her lap is derived from Italian prototypes of the later 1400s. Jesus holds a single grape, which he has picked from a bunch held by his mother. This refers to the belief that bread and wine turn into Christ’s body and blood during Catholic mass, a doctrine shared by Martin Luther but disputed by other reformers.

Saint Catherine

Artist

c. 1450–60

Austria

Wood, pigment, gold

20.11

The epitome of an intellectual Christian saint, Catherine of Alexandria is said to have debated the foremost philosophers of her age and converted them to Christianity with her brilliant logic. Her legend recounts that she was a learned young noblewoman of the 4th century who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. Shown here under Catherine’s feet is the Roman emperor Maxentius, a persecutor of Christians, who had her tortured on a wheel and then beheaded.

Saint Lucy

Benedetto di Bindo Zoppo

c. 1410

Italy

Tempera on panel

68.89

Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist

Onorio Marinari

1670s

Italian

Oil on canvas

2003.117.1

Grasping a gold plate holding John the Baptist’s severed head, young Salome presents this gruesome prize to her mother. Salome’s stepfather, King Herod, had granted her a wish after she danced for him at a banquet. Prompted by her mother, she asked for John’s head. John had accused Salome’s mother of adultery because she was previously married to Herod’s brother.

Into this grisly scene the artist injected a dissonant elegance. Contrasting with the saint’s bloodied head and the shirtless executioner’s rough looks, mother and daughter are beautiful and refined, with porcelain skin and sumptuous attire that includes shiny pearls and elaborate headpieces. By Salome’s downturned head, Marinari suggested a pained remorse as she contemplates the result of her murderous request.

Standing Madonna with Child

Nardo di Cione

c. 1350-1354

Italy

Tempera on poplar panel

68.41.7

During the bubonic plague of 1348, over half the population of Florence perished. This tragedy created a need for new types of religious images, like this Standing Madonna, designed to bring spiritual relief to the survivors.

Triptych with the Madonna and Child, saints, and prophets

Pierre Reymond

1538

French (Limoges)

Enamel on copper

88.53

This scene depicting the Virgin Mary, her infant son Jesus Christ, and various saints and prophets also includes the kneeling figure of Louise de Bourbon (1495–1545), a member of the French royal family (Note the inscription "LOYSE DE BOURBON" on the hem of her dark habit). She was the abbess of Fontevrault, an important religious foundation with a long history of royal patronage.

Enameled objects like this one were highly prized for the great artistry and technical skill required to make them. Enameling involves painting a metal surface with powdered glass, which is then fused to the metal by heating. Inserting gold or silver foil between layers of enamel, as was done here, makes the colors more luminous. The town of Limoges, in southwestern France, where this triptych was made, has been an important center of enamel production since the 12th century.

Virgin and Child

14th century

France

Stone, polychromed

14.36

This limestone Madonna’s stance may look a bit odd to a modern eye. Right knee bent and left hip jutting out, upper body tilted back and head bent sharply toward the Christ child on her arm, her body describes an S shape. Fluid and ornamental, the S curve is typical of sculptured figures in the Gothic period.

Virgin and Child in a Landscape

possibly Master of the Madonna Grog; Artist: possibly Aert van den Bossche; Artist: formerly Master of the Embroidered Foliage

c. 1492–98

Netherlands

Oil on panel

90.7

 This painting is an altarpiece, a devotional image used in a Christian church, and many of the details are religious symbols. The walled garden, for instance, refers to the garden in the Bible’s Song of Songs and is associated with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. The flowering plants also refer to Mary: the blue iris to her sorrows, the violets to her humility, and the strawberry plant to her righteousness. The peacock on the gate may signify paradise while the stags represent the human soul and piety.

Recent scholarship has revealed that the artist known as the Master of the Embroidered Foliage, for the delicately patterned leaves characteristic of his work, was more likely a group of artists who used the same figures and compositions for a number of similar panel paintings.

Virgin of the Milk (Virgen de la leche)

Circle of Gil de Siloe

c. 1500

Spain

Polychromed wood

2012.12

This medieval sculpture of the Virgin Mary breastfeeding her son is unexpectedly naturalistic for its time. Milk was considered refined blood from the mother’s womb, and images of the Virgin breastfeeding the Christ child had theological significance. It was thought the Virgin’s milk, like the blood of Jesus on the cross, had redemptive properties.

Wedding chest (cassone)

Unknown Artist, Italian (Lucca)

1475–85

Italy

Poplar with gilt and painted gesso decoration

16.747

This Renaissance wedding chest is among the best preserved in the world, with its lock intact and fragments of the original lining inside. These luxury objects were commissioned to celebrate marriages and decorate couples’ bedrooms.

Gilded and stamped reliefs decorate the front of this chest. The coats of arms belong to two prominent families from the Tuscan town of Lucca, the Cenami (groom, left) and Balbani (bride, right). The four women represent the cardinal virtues, Temperance, Justice, Fortitude, and Prudence. They are flanked by two fantastical scenes—a combat between hybrid creatures at left and a lustful centaur galloping with a maiden on his back. She probably represents Demeter, goddess of the harvest, who was celebrated in the Renaissance for bringing prosperity and civilization to humankind. With her lit torch and calm reason, she is depicted dominating the centaur’s bestial nature.