The Virgin Mary, with the Infant and Saint John the Baptist

The portrait of the Virgin Mary is considered to be one of Lucas Cranach’s most beautiful female representations, and it presents all the canonical features: white complexion, offset by rosy touches, blond tresses, harmonious facial features, long nose, thin, red lips. Her body is represented lacking almost any specific detail. A more anatomically detailed representation of the Virgin will appear at a later stage of development of European painting, with the fading of the devotional function of images, paralleled by an ever-keener interest in naturalism. However, we notice the Virgin’s uncovered and half-undone hair, the locks of a person’s hair being an important descriptive element in the epoch, almost all narratives overwhelmingly favouring fair hair. ©Dana Roxana Hrib, European Art Gallery Guidebook, Second edition, Sibiu 2011.