Madonna of Humility, portable altarpiece
- Artist: Andrea di Bartolo, Italian, Sienese, active 1389-1428
- Medium: Tempera and tooled gold on poplar panels
- Place Made: Italy
- Dates: ca. 1410
- Dimensions: Central panel: 16 11/16 x 7 1/8 in. (42.4 x 18.1 cm) Side panels: 15 15/16 x 3 1/4 in. (40.5 x 8.3 cm)
- Inscriptions: On scroll of the Angel Annunciate: "AVE MA"
- Collections: European Art
- Museum Location:
This item is on view in Beaux-Arts Court, East, 3rd Floor - Accession Number: 34.839
- Credit Line: Gift of Mary Babbott Ladd, Lydia Babbott Stokes, and Frank L. Babbott, Jr. in memory of their father Frank L. Babbott
- Image: Overall, 34.839.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
- Catalogue Description: Center Panel: Madonna of Humility Pinnacle: Christ the Redeemer Left wing: Saint Anthony Abbot; the Angel Annunciate Right wing: Saint James Major; the Virgin Annunciate
Like other portable triptychs, this work was made for private devotions. Although, as always, the Madonna and Child are central, this Sienese painter portrays not an enthroned figure but rather one seated on the ground. There are several other examples of this type, known as the Madonna of Humility, in this gallery. Here, Mary is pictured in a garden (a traditional symbol of the Virgin), shown only as a fringe of grasses and flowers on which she sits. The robes of the two saints have very finely painted drapery folds; the robe of the Virgin, however, has darkened with age and lost its three-dimensional definition.
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