Virgin and Child
Artist
Luca di Tommè
(Italian, active 1355 - 1389)
Dateca. 1366
Object number62.0270
Mediumtempera on panel
Dimensions58 11/16 × 24 5/16 in. (149 × 61.7 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineMuseo de Arte de Ponce. The Luis A. Ferré Foundation, Inc.
Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York
Collections
On View
Not on viewDescriptionLuca di Tommè created this panel in Siena as the central component of an altarpiece; its missing side panels may have depicted two, or perhaps four, standing saints. Luca typically pressed his figures up against the composition’s edges, exemplified here in the Christ Child’s scroll, which doubles back as it touches the Gothic arch. Although both figures are depicted as monumental and awe-inspiring, they are more relatable to the viewer through details such as Mary caressing Christ Child's foot. He wears a Greek cross and a piece of coral, which according to legend warded off evil, and pulls his mother’s white veil, a reference in early Italian art to the winding cloth on which Crucified Christ was laid. The Latin scroll bears the inscription “I am the light of the world.”
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