Ancient Italian Art: The Virgin And Child

Since its beginning, ancient Italian art has been some of the most captivating and important art in history. It has provided historians with many different architectural and artistic styles to examine, and traces of these styles can still be found in modern artwork today. Some of the most important information that has been discovered about the early Italians can be attributed to artwork from the time. A vast amount of this information surrounds the religious beliefs of the Italian people. One of the more iconic pieces from the mid 13th to late 14th centuries was the Madonna and Child, also known as the Virgin and Child. This piece displays an image of the virgin Mary and the baby Jesus and because of this, is considered to be a “holy

While the colors in the painting are not monochromatic, they are dominantly red and orange. This sea of red and orange with the only real color standing out being the black of Mary's dress gives the painting a lack of happiness. If the piece included more and varying bright colors, it would most likely give off a happy or cheerful undertone. It seems that the artist was attempting to show a sense of formality among the subjects in the painting due to all of their features as well. Not only are Mary and Jesus shown with very unemotional faces, but all the subjects, including John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene, convey a lack of emotion. It is also important to note that unlike in some art pieces; all the subjects in this piece do convey a sense of realism in that they all have distinct

The Virgin Mary was a central figure throughout many different religious time periods. She was one of the most important spiritual figures to the Byzantine’s and was mostly stressed in her role as Christ’s Mother and was usually shown holding Christ in most images of her. The more western representations of the Madonna and Child or Virgin and Child show many similarities to the Byzantine representations. This can be seen through the many similarities in the style, and subject matter between the Virgin and Child pieces created in the Byzantine empire and later in France and Italy. In the later middle ages, the commonly known representations of the Virgin and Child give way to a more tender representation. This tender representation emphasizes the relationship between the mother and child. It was more common to see Mary holding Jesus in a more compassionate way, or for Mary to be shown nursing Jesus. It is important to note that while there was a slight shift in the way that the subjects were displayed between the western representations and the later middle ages, the style of the work still remained relatively the same. The color schemes, facial expressions, and lines most commonly found in the pieces from the Byzantine Empire were very similar to those found in both the western representations and the later middle