By Julia Granger
Unknown Artist
Italian, Umbrian, ca. 1475
Madonna and Child with Two Saints
Tempera and gold on wood panel
This is a painting of Jesus in the arms of his mother, Mary. In the background are two saints. Mary is wearing a black robe. For a baby, Jesus is shown as very large and with adult proportions, holding himself stiffly. This is probably because he was very important and would not be painted like a real baby. There are two saints standing behind Jesus and Mary. They aren't the main focus of the painting. They seem like just a background. One of them is a bishop and one is a monk. We know it is a bishop because he is wearing a miter. No one knows who the bishop is. The other figure is St. Thomas of Aquinas. You can tell because he has a monk's haircut and he is holding a sun in his hand. The sun shows that he is lighting up the world and that is how he is shown in other paintings. The bishop and saint are shown behind Mary and Jesus because they are considered less important and are not the main focus of the painting.
The painting was probably commissioned by a monastery or a wealthy person. Artists in the fifteenth century didn't really get to pick what they painted. The patrons mostly decided what they wanted painted and told the artist. From the style and subject, the Museum's curators have determined that it was probably painted in Umbria sometime around 1475. This was figured out by comparing the painting to others about which more is known. We think that it was painted for an abbot or a bishop, since the saints in the background are a monk and a bishop. The painting probably originally stood in an altar on the wall of the patron's private chapel and was the focus of his daily prayers.
Over the top of the frame it has the first part of the Hail Mary in Italian. It says "Ave Maria, plena gratia domin-" and then stops in the middle of the word. It isn't the original frame. The marks on the back, where the wood was sawed show that it was made with power tools. Also, since the Hail Mary was cut off in the middle it shows that the person who made the frame probably didn't know the prayer and was just copying it down from somewhere. If it had been actually made in the middle ages the person who made it would be more familiar with the prayer.
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