Brooklyn Museum: European Art: Madonna of Humility, portable altarpiece

Want to add this object to a set? Please join the Posse, or log in.

Madonna of Humility, portable altarpiece

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.

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

Collections: European Art: Madonna of Humility, portable altarpiece