Madonna and Child
Mary and the Child cheek to cheek, his hand clutching his mother's veil: a Madonna and Child on gold ground by the Sienese painter Sano di Pietro. Full commentary ↓
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Madonna and Child is a tempera and gold painting by Sano di Pietro (about 1450) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 41.6 × 30.8 cm.
In the pictureOn a gold-leaf ground, Mary, wearing a blue mantle, holds the Child with their cheeks pressed together. The Child wears red and grips his mother's white veil in one hand, and Mary's eyes are lowered. Both halos carry patterns tooled in dots, and the edge of the mantle is finished with a gold line.
BackgroundThe cheek-to-cheek Madonna and Child is a type derived from Byzantine icons, and it emphasizes the tenderness between mother and child. Sano di Pietro produced many such paintings in his workshop and sold them for private devotion, which is why his Madonnas survive in museums everywhere today. The long, soft facial contours typical of Sienese painting and the splendor of the gold leaf remain intact.
Puzzle tipIt divides into four colors: the blue mantle, the red robe, flesh tones, and gold. Fit the two faces first, and attach the blue mantle pieces starting with those crossed by the gold border line. Placing the gold pieces with halo patterns at the top first narrows down where the rest go.
- Artist
- Italian, Siena 1405–1481 Siena
- Classification
- Paintings
- Medium
- Tempera on wood, gold ground
- Dimensions
- 41.6 × 30.8 cm
- Credit line
- Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
Stories about this work
- A Madonna and Child Pretending to Be 500 Years Old: A Painting Made in an Old Style
One of the Madonna and Child paintings on this site is not a 15th-century work. It was painted much later to look like one, and the museum does not hide that fact.
- Why Early Renaissance Altarpieces Have Gold Backgrounds: Reading the Lehman Panels
Why is the background of every gold-ground panel in the Robert Lehman Collection gold? Early Renaissance painting, explored by putting the panels together as puzzles.
- Why Are There So Many Madonna and Child Paintings? Painting the Same Scene for Centuries
This site alone has 12 paintings of the Madonna and Child. Why the same scene was repeated for centuries, and how to find the differences within it.
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