Madonna and Child, with the Blessing Christ [middle panel] – (Pietro Lorenzetti) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: Pietro Lorenzetti

Date: 1340

Size: 98 x 49 cm

Technique: Tempera On Panel

Shown from the hips up, a woman to our left holds a baby upright in her arms to our right, both against a gold background on a panel shaped to come to a sharp point at the top of this vertical painting. The pale skin of both people is faintly tinted with green. The woman’s body is angled to our right and she looks at the child she holds. She has wide, hooded, light brown eyes under faint brows, a long, straight nose, and her pale pink lips are closed. She wears a sapphire-blue mantle that covers her head and drapes down past her shoulders over a crimson-red dress. Edges of a white veil are visible long the edge of the blue robe. She holds a bunch of red cherries in her right hand by the child’s hip. The baby’s body is angled toward the woman, and he turns his head back to look over his left shoulder, off to our right. He has short, tight blond curls and pale brown eyes. Pale pink flushes his cheeks and his mouth is slightly open. He holds a bunch of three cherries close to his mouth with one hand and reaches toward the fruit the woman holds with the other. He wears a daffodil-yellow garment with a tight bodice, long sleeves, and fabric loosely draped over his legs to show the toes of one bare foot. A swath of fabric wafts from his left shoulder, to our right, like a pennant. Bands of geometric designs made with black lines decorate the cuffs, waist, and neckline of the tunic. Disk-like halos are incised into the gold background the woman and child. Above them, narrow molding affixed to the panel creates a rounded but pointed arch set under the sharp point at the top of the panel. Between the arch and the triangular tip, a man with a honey-brown beard and hair surrounded by a gold halo holds up his right hand with the index and middle fingers raised. Seen from the waist up, he wears an ultramarine-blue tunic with a rose-pink robe, and he looks off to our right. The surface of the painting is cracked and chipped, especially in the gold areas.