The Virgin and Child in a Red Rose

The Virgin Mary stands nursing the Christ Child at the center of a blooming red rose--a medieval symbol of Mary's charity. The brown circle punctuated by white and gold dots that surrounds the flower symbolizes a rosary, the string of beads that has been used as an aid for meditation and prayer by Christians since the early 1200s. Reciting the rosary involves repeating the Hail Mary prayer fifty times, represented by the white beads; the prayer at the bottom of the page is also dedicated to the Virgin. This focus on Mary, in word and in image, indicates an increasing devotion to the Virgin, especially by the later Middle Ages, when this image was created.