The Madonna of Humility, the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Pietà
The Met
Artist: Bartolomeo Vivarini(Italian, active Venice 1450–91)
Date: ca. 1465
Department: Robert Lehman Collection
Classification: Paintings
Medium: Tempera and gold on wood
Dimensions: Central panel, overall 23 x 18 in. (58.4 x 45.7 cm); left panel, overall 22 3/8 x 9 1/2 in. (56.8 x 24.1 cm); right panel, overall 22 1/4 x 9 3/8 in. (56.5 x 23.8 cm);
Credit Line: Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Visual Descriptions
AI GeneratedVisual Summary
Brief Description
A golden Gothic altarpiece with a central Madonna and Child flanked by smaller narrative panels
Detailed Description
This multi-paneled altarpiece is predominantly gold, featuring a large central panel flanked by two vertical columns of smaller panels. The ornate gold frame has pointed arches, spires, and intricate Gothic tracery. The central panel depicts a woman holding a child, seated on a patch of green ground with a dense cluster of dark green trees behind them. The woman wears a red dress and a dark, elaborately patterned gold cloak, a gold crown, and a gold halo. She holds the child, who wears a light purple garment and has a gold halo, on her lap. The child reaches out with both hands. To the woman's left, a kneeling figure in a dark brown habit with a white wimple looks up at her. Above, two pairs of winged figures with halos fly in the golden sky. The left column contains two smaller panels. The top-left panel shows a winged figure in a pink robe kneeling before another figure in a blue robe, both with gold halos, in a garden setting with a building on the left. The bottom-left panel depicts a woman in a blue robe kneeling before a baby in a manger, with a man in a red robe and an animal nearby, all within a stable-like structure. The right column also contains two smaller panels. The top-right panel shows a woman in a blue robe kneeling at a prayer desk in a room with a red bed in the background. The bottom-right panel features a woman in a blue robe holding a deceased figure, both resting on a blue cloth, against a landscape background with hills and a golden sky.
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