Madonna and Child

Masolino’s painting Madonna and Child is the earliest dated work by the artist. The panel was executed in 1423, when Masolino enrolled as a master in the Florentine guild of physicians and apothecaries, to which the painters of that time also belonged. It shows a Madonna of Humility (Madonna dell’Umiltà), an iconographic type that had emerged in Siena in the first half of the 14th century and quickly came to enjoy great popularity, especially as an image for private devotion. Unlike with traditional, austere cult imagery, neither a crown nor a retinue or host of angels distinguishes the Virgin’s role as the Queen of Heaven in this panel. Instead, the intimate mother–child relationship is the focus of the work, showing Mary sitting on the ground in an animated, natural pose. Appearing beneath the head of Christ in the tympanum above, the Virgin, wearing the blue cloak of the Madonna, tenderly embraces the Christ Child, who looks slightly upwards and out of the painting. His gaze is prophetically somber, indicating that God will sacrifice His son to save mankind. The caption in Latin is directly addressed to the viewer. Translated, it reads: “Oh, how great is the mercy of God.”