Our Lady of the Milk

The representation of Our Lady of the Milk, the Virgin Mary breastfeeding her son in her lap, is a theme that only began to be developed in the late Middle Ages, corresponding to a period when the cult of the Virgin Mary began to be established in artistic terms, corresponding to a moment when there was a greater humanisation of the religious representations that marked the initial phase of the Renaissance. Dominated by a simple artistic expression that was almost iconic in nature and which was closer to the 15th-century traditions of painting in Portugal, rather than being linked to the values imported from Bruges or Italy, this portrait still remains an excellent "document" about the people’s devotions, in which the attention and care that Mary takes in holding the Child Jesus are signs of her total commitment and devotion, which, at the same time, can be interpreted as the protection that the Virgin (and the Church) offers to the congregation.
Mary appears as a simple woman displaying all the expected signs of tenderness towards her son, but she also symbolises the hand of God (as the mother of all Men). It is a half-body depiction of the Virgin, who, with her head leaning slightly to the right, an oval-shaped face, and her long and loose, fair hair falling over her shoulders, is cradling in her arms the naked Child Jesus, to whom she is offering her mother’s milk. The image of the Virgin is backed by a hanging cloth, set against the stumped background of a blurred landscape, in which there is a suggestion of a garden with rose bushes and some trees and mountains.