# Madonna and Child [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [JACOPO DI CIONE]() - Date: 1351-1400 - Technique: Tempera on panel, 140 x 68 cm ## Commentary On this panel the Virgin sits directly on the ground, eschewing the throne that is her right as Queen of Heaven. Above her are the blessing God the Father and angels. The Madonna of Humility, as this type of representation is called, appeared at the end of the Middle Ages as devotion to Mary took on a greater personal, human dimension. The infant's reaching for her breast to nurse is a natural gesture - and layered with symbolism. At a time when all but the poorest families sent their children to wet nurses, his gesture reinforces the idea of Mary's humility. Since milk was believed to be blood that had been converted in the mother's body, the artist is evoking Jesus's sacrifice and the sacrament of communion. And, because the Virgin was associated with the Church itself, the nursing allusion points further to the sustenance given to the faithful by the Church, emphasized by Mary's large, sheltering body. Formerly the painting was attributed to Jacopo's brother Orcagna, or to his workshop. ## Related artworks - [Annunciation]() - [Coronation of the Virgin]() - [Female Saints]() - [Madonna and Child with Saints]() - [Madonna dell'Umiltà]() - [Mystic Marriage of St Catherine of Alexandria]() - [Noli me tangere \(detail\)]() - [Noli me tangere \(detail\)]() - [Noli me tangere]() - [Polyptych \(detail\)]() - [Polyptych \(detail\)]() - [Polyptych \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()