# Madonna of Humility [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [GIOVANNI DI PAOLO]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Tempera on panel, 62 x 48 cm ## Commentary Madonna of Humility c. 1435 Tempera on panel, 62 x 48 cm Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena The Virgin is painted in a surprisingly thick impasto. She has small features under a tall brow and turban. She is at play with her child on the flowering summit of a little hill, seated on a brocade cushion and enclosed within a tightly packed orchard, bursting with fruit. The theme of the Virgin in the Garden is given a new dimension by the cosmic panorama that rears up behind as a tilted plane. Paths and boundaries are mapped out by microscopic trees and tiny white-dotted stones, painted with a miniaturist's precision. From the right, a river curves through the checkered fields, past the dark rock that guards the steep-walled city, and down into the lake. Variations of this chessboard panorama recur throughout Giovanni di Paolo's long career. ## Related artworks - [A Miracle by St Nicholas of Tolentino]() - [Adoration of the Magi]() - [Antiphonary]() - [Antiphonary]() - [Antiphonary]() - [Antiphonary]() - [Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane]() - [Coronation of the Virgin]() - [Crucifixion \(detail\)]() - [Crucifixion \(detail\)]() - [Crucifixion]() - [Dante: Divina Commedia]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()