Cross
Byzantine
11th-12th century
iron, bronze
67.6.4
Faith
Italian, Florentine
ca. 1468
tempera on wood
46.18.1
This painting is called a birth salver, customarily commissioned during the Italian Renaissance to celebrate the birth of a child. Appropriately, the subject matter concerns birth and legitimacy. According to the Old Testament story of King Solomon found in 1 Kings:3, two women each claimed to be the mother of the same child. To settle the dispute, Solomon ordered a soldier to cut the infant in two, wisely calculating that he could discover the real mother by the women’s reactions.
The painting captures the climactic moment of the story: as the soldier grabs the child by the foot and raises his sword, one woman lifts her hands toward the infant and gives up her claim in order to spare the child’s life. She is obviously the child’s mother, and Solomon will award the infant to her.
The pageantry and fanfare in Giovanni’s work are typical of the festive art that decorated the homes of wealthy Florentine families at this time. To depict the elaborate architectural setting, Scheggia used one-point perspective, a technique also studied in depth by his more famous older brother, Masaccio.
Falconer on Horseback
French
15th century
polychromed wood
69.42
This hunter wears a thick glove on his left hand as protection against the talons of the falcon that he once carried. Falconry is a type of hunting for sport in which a trained bird captured prey for its master. It was a favorite pastime of nobility in the Medieval period.
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints
Flemish
1499
oil on panel
57.39
Representations of the Madonna with female saints were popular in the 15th-century Bruges. Here, Saints Catherine of Alexandria, Dorothy of Cappadocia, Barbara, and Agnes, all of whom lived in different places and at different times, join Christ and the Virgin in a heavenly paradise that resembles the earthly world. This is the martyred saints’ reward, meant to inspire similar Christian devotion in the viewer.
In this charming ideal vision of a world without sin, the artist inserted many details symbolizing the ultimate virtue of the Virgin and her entourage. For example, the rosebushes the maidens tend in the garden (center left) stand for the Virgin’s purity. St. Bernard of Clairvaux called the Virgin the “rose without a thorn”; she is also compared to the “enclosed garden” in the Song of Songs [Solomon 4:12], an elaborate love poem that Christians in the Middle Ages interpreted as an allegory of the Virgin. The peacock seen in the background (left) was a common Christian symbol of immortality and of Christ’s Resurrection; legend held that the flesh of a peacock never decayed.
Little is known of this artist, but he was certainly both ambitious and skilled in bringing complicated and abstract religious concepts to vivid and believable life.
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Dominic, Zenobius, Francis and Miniato (Primary Title)
Madonna and Child enthroned between Saints Dominic, Zenobius, Francis and Miniato (Former Title)
between 1450 and 1452
tempera on panel
2015.217
Neri di Bicci, born into a family of artists, operated a large and prolific workshop that was active in and around Florence in the mid-15th century. He mainly produced altarpieces, like this one, that exemplified the transition from a highly stylized late-Gothic style to a more monumental Renaissance idiom. Surrounding the enthroned Madonna and Child are the four patron saints of Florence: Dominic, a Spanish monk who founded the Dominican order; Zenobius, the first bishop of Florence; Francis, founder of the Franciscan order; and Minias (San Miniato), an Armenian king who became a hermit near Florence.
Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Catherine of Siena
Italian, Sienese
probably 1490s
tempera on wood
54.6.1
Though he practiced in the late 15th-early 16th centuries when perspectival and anatomical realism had become conventional, Guidoccio di Giovanni Cozzarelli ignored these innovations in favor of an archaic gold background and stereotyped elongated figures. The result seems totally iconic and devout, as the artist refrains from showing off his skill in favor of the straightforward representation of the objects of the viewers’ veneration.
Madonna and Child with Two Angels
Italian, Sienese
after 1470
tempera on wood
48.2.2
Giovanni di Paolo’s original rendition of this familiar devotional subject combines a realistic observation of facial expression with a beautiful stylized patterning of details, lines, and contours. The complicated pose of the Christ child as he wriggles in his devoted mother’s arms leads the viewer’s eye directly to the lovely face Giovanni imagined for the Madonna.
Reliquary Bust of St. Barbara
German
late 15th-early 16th century
polychromed and gilded oak
75.38
St. Barbara was murdered by her father because she became a Christian. He was struck dead by lightning in return, and St. Barbara became the saint invoked for protection from sudden storms. Originally this bust held a holy relic in an opening at the top of the head. Two other openings on the figure’s chest were added later.
Desco da parto (birth salver) (Object Name)
The Judgment of Solomon (Former Title)
Marriage or Birth Salver, depicting "The Judgment of Solomon" on the obverse and a Figure of an unidentified Virtue between the Arms of Davanzati and Ginori (Former Title)
ca. 1468
Italian, Florentine
tempera on wood
46.18.1
This painting is called a birth salver, customarily commissioned during the Italian Renaissance to celebrate the birth of a child. Appropriately, the subject matter concerns birth and legitimacy. According to the Old Testament story of King Solomon found in 1 Kings:3, two women each claimed to be the mother of the same child. To settle the dispute, Solomon ordered a soldier to cut the infant in two, wisely calculating that he could discover the real mother by the women’s reactions.
The painting captures the climactic moment of the story: as the soldier grabs the child by the foot and raises his sword, one woman lifts her hands toward the infant and gives up her claim in order to spare the child’s life. She is obviously the child’s mother, and Solomon will award the infant to her.
The pageantry and fanfare in Giovanni’s work are typical of the festive art that decorated the homes of wealthy Florentine families at this time. To depict the elaborate architectural setting, Scheggia used one-point perspective, a technique also studied in depth by his more famous older brother, Masaccio.
The Assumption of the Virgin with St. Thomas and Two Donors (Ser Palamedes and his Son Matthew)
(Primary Title)
ca. 1390s
Italian
tempera on wood
54.11.3
In this imposing, majestic painting, Andrea di Bartolo depicts the miraculous Assumption of the Virgin Mary to heaven, aided by angels three days after her death. Here, she has dropped her sash to the Apostle Thomas (who doubted the Resurrection of Christ) as proof of the miracle he is witnessing.
According to the long Latin inscription on the base, Dominica, a woman from Urbino, commissioned the painting to commemorate the souls of her deceased husband, Ser Palamedes, and their son, Matthew. Approximately, father and son are shown kneeling in prayer on either side of the apostle.
The painting, one of only four signed pictures by this artist, once formed the center panel of an altarpiece. Andrea’s sensitivity delineated figures, subtle colors, and harmonious composition are characteristics of 14th-century Sienese painting.
The Crucifixion
Italian
probably between 1345 and 1350
tempera on wood
59.4
Painted on a background of punched gold, Jesus takes his last breath on the cross, flanked by angels. Mary Magdalene, in red, cries at Christ’s feet while John the Evangelist and the Virgin Mary stand to Christ’s left and right sides; John raises a hand to his face in sorrow. Above Christ’s head, a pelican pierces her breast to save her children with her own blood, a common metaphor for Christ’s sacrifice for his Church. Allegretto Nuzi likely painted this Crucifixion panel while living in Florence during an early phase in his career. By employing the style of painting known as Italian Gothic, Nuzi emphasizes a sense of naturalism and perspective, bringing the images to life and making the figures and their emotions accessible to the viewer. This panel was probably from a much larger altarpiece.
The Crucifixion
Spanish
1440-1445
Tempera on panel
2016.144
The Virgin and Child with Young Saint John the Baptist (Primary Title)
ca. 1540s
Italian
oil on panel
Italy,Florence
2007.16
Francesco d’Ubertini Verdi (Il Bacchiacca) was born in Florence in 1484 and, like Raphael, was trained by Perugino. Bacchiacca later became one of the leading painters of the first generation of Mannerist artists and counted the Medici family among his primary patrons. He was responsible for many altarpieces in Florence, working alongside artists such as Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto, and Agnolo Bronzino.
This 1540s domestic altarpiece is a hybrid, with elements of both Mannerism and the High Renaissance period that preceded it. Such mixing of widely differing styles is typical not only of Mannerist works but also of the artist himself (hence the nickname Il Bacchiacca, which literally means to harvest select ripe fruit from trees with a long stick). Ultimately, both the subject of this painting and its setting derive from a theme most developed in Leonardo da Vinci’s Madonna of the Rocks.
The scale of Bacchiacca’s Madonna and her relieflike appearance draw from High Renaissance examples such as Raphael’s late Madonnas. Specific references to Michelangelo are evident in the costume and hairstyle of the Virgin; in her pose, deriving from the Medici Madonna; and in the pose of the Baptist. The overall coloring also shows a debt to Michelangelo’s Sistine ceiling, while the whitish light is comparable to the work of Agnolo Bronzino. Other references are also present: the infant Christ is probably a witty recasting of an ancient river god, most likely of the Tiber, while the background figures are taken from a print, The Beggars, by the Northern artist Lucas van Leyden. Finally, the well-defined plants and flowers in the foreground, while possibly symbolic, also testify to the artist’s interest in natural history, fostered by the Medici. This eclectic yet erudite mastery of many styles strongly appeals to elite connoisseurs of art.
Cassone (Nuptial Chest) (Primary Title)
ca. 1560
Italian
walnut, parcel gilt
53.18.45
Story of the Vestal Virgin Tuccia (front),
Vigilance (left side),
Obedience (right side) (Primary Title)
Italian, Sienese
first half of the 1470s (front panel), late 1450s or early 1460s (side panels)
wood, polychrome and gilt
46.13.1
In the painting on the front of this chest, a follower of the Sienese artist Francesco di Giorgio or a member of his workshop recasts an ancient Roman story in a Renaissance setting.
Tuccia, a priestess of the goddess Vesta, was falsely accused of impurity. The artist depicts her defending her honor by performing a remarkable task. In the panel on the right, Tuccia dips her sieve into the Tiber River, and in the center left, she miraculously carries the water-filled sieve—a sign of her virtue—to the other priestesses at the temple. The priestesses wear the garments of 15th-century Christian nuns and the setting of the painting is a city composed of landmarks from ancient Rome and Renaissance Siena.
The painting originally decorated a cassone (wedding chest) as an example and reminder of virtuous behavior for the bride who stored her dowry goods in it. The mostly reconstructed, 19th-century chest that now houses the painting gives some sense of the lost original.
The Holy Family with the Infant St. John and an Angel
Italian
ca. 1500
tempera and oil on panel
53.18.19
Domenico Ghirlandaio was one of the leading artists in Florence toward the end of the 15th century. He had a large workshop in which the young Michelangelo trained along with many other artists. The painter of this tondo, or circular painting, probably trained with Ghirlandaio as well, though the piece also shows extensive borrowings from other masters.
Though we do not know this artist’s real name, he is known as the “Master of the Naumburg Madonna” after one of his most characteristic works, which was given to the Harvard University Art Museums by a member of the Naumburg family. Although the master’s adherence to the simple and clear style typical of later 15th-century Florentine painting borders on the naïve, this style ultimately led to the emphasis on harmony and balance employed by later artists such as Raphael.
Virgin and Child, 15th century
Virgin and Child, early 16th century
Limestone with traces of polychromy
By exchange with The Metropolitan Museum of Art
68.9.12
The balanced pose of this Virgin and Child and the way in which the sculpture suggests the presence of their bodies beneath their garments ultimately come from the sculpture of classical antiquity. The mother is not idealized, as in many medieval representations of the Virgin, but is portrayed as a lady of the 16th century. The blessing infant is presented as a lively, realistic child. This sculpture reputedly comes from a nunnery near Provins, possibly the Convent of Paraclet in Champagne.
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