Madonna and Child

Lorenzo Monaco (Florentine, c. 1370 - c. 1425) delicate and elegant style can be found in a wide range of artistic formats. In addition to paintings on panel and fresco decorations he created manuscript illuminations (the National Gallery of Art owns two: _Christ Giving the Keys to Saint Peter _and _Praying Prophet_), a medium particularly well-suited to his graceful manner. Notice the curve of Jesus’s body as he leans in to his mother, lifting her veil, and the sinuous line of her head and torso. The hem of her blue mantle curls in a rhythmic, calligraphic line. Lorenzo also had a delicate touch with color, and was not afraid to substitute the pastels he preferred for more traditional hues. In place of the red dress more commonly seen in images where the Virgin holds the infant child, Lorenzo has clothed Mary in a fine, light dress embroidered with gold—a splendid garment more common in pictures that present her coronation in heaven.

The painter we know as Lorenzo Monaco was probably called Piero di Giovanni by his friends and family. Names of Renaissance artists can be confusing: is it “Leonardo” or “da Vinci”? It’s Leonardo. In fact surnames were largely an aristocratic preserve during most the Middle Ages and Renaissance; most people were identified by their father’s name, their town, or some distinguishing characteristic. In this case, Piero took the name Lorenzo when—already an accomplished and well-respected artist—he entered a Camaldolese monastery in Florence, in 1391; and his surname Monaco is Italian for “monk.”