# Madonna and Child

[View the canonical artwork record](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/paolo-di-giovanni-fei-reb0cf1c67c5ef4/madonna-and-child-r76b7a40778b08a>)

## Artwork

- Artist: [PAOLO DI GIOVANNI FEI](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/paolo-di-giovanni-fei-reb0cf1c67c5ef4>)
- Date: 1351-1400
- Technique: Tempera on wood, gold ground, 69 x 43 cm

## Commentary

This panel of the Madonna nursing her child transforms a common, maternal activity into an icon of devotion and is painted with Fei&#39;s special feeling for decorative richness and technical refinement. The engaged frame is original, as are the gold-backed, glass medallions with images of the Annunciation, saints, and the head of Christ - a technique known as verre églomisé. The central medallion on the Virgin&#39;s cloak is also in verre églomisé and depicts the head of Christ. The picture may have been painted for a domestic setting, but it is worth noting that occasionally pictures of this format were also adapted for use on an altar. Such, for example, is the case with a Madonna Lactans by Fei, which was incorporated as the centrepiece of an elaborate altar in the cathedral of Siena commissioned from Andrea Bregno by Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini in the 1480s.

## Related artworks

- [Assumption of the Virgin](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/paolo-di-giovanni-fei-reb0cf1c67c5ef4/assumption-of-the-virgin-rf11fa8a0664190>)
- [Madonna and Child with Two Angels, Sts Francis and Louis of Toulouse](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/paolo-di-giovanni-fei-reb0cf1c67c5ef4/madonna-and-child-with-two-angels-sts-francis-and-louis-of-toulouse-rf3d38a1eb7082e>)
- [Madonna Lactans](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/paolo-di-giovanni-fei-reb0cf1c67c5ef4/madonna-lactans-r2db638725d5531>)
- [Madonna Lactans](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/paolo-di-giovanni-fei-reb0cf1c67c5ef4/madonna-lactans-r9b8bd849d7189e>)
- [Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/paolo-di-giovanni-fei-reb0cf1c67c5ef4/presentation-of-the-virgin-in-the-temple-r0f638d006b4bf7>)
- [Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/paolo-di-giovanni-fei-reb0cf1c67c5ef4/presentation-of-the-virgin-in-the-temple-r31edd17c9020be>)
- [Triptych](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/paolo-di-giovanni-fei-reb0cf1c67c5ef4/triptych-rec1826490f98f5>)
- [Virgin and Child Enthroned \(detail\)](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/paolo-di-giovanni-fei-reb0cf1c67c5ef4/virgin-and-child-enthroned-detail-rbabd4afe4128de>)
- [Virgin and Child Enthroned](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/paolo-di-giovanni-fei-reb0cf1c67c5ef4/virgin-and-child-enthroned-r5c203cea2cbb8a>)

## Attribution

[Web Gallery of Art](<https://beta.wga.hu/pages/about>)