Artist: Lippo Memmi
Date: 1330
Size: 52 x 24 cm
Technique: Tempera On Panel
Shown from the hips up, a young woman holds an upright baby against a richly patterned gold background in this vertical panel painting, which comes to a point at the top center. The woman nearly fills the panel, and she looms over a very small man kneeling in the lower left, facing our right in profile. The people all have ivory-white skin with a greenish cast, and petal-pink cheeks. The woman’s body faces us, supporting the baby in the curve of her left arm, our right. Thin, tawny-brown eyebrows arch over her hazel, almond-shaped eyes, which gaze off to our right. She has a long, narrow nose and small rose-pink mouth. Her head tilts to our right and is covered by an ivory-white cloth that frames her round face and wraps around the neckline of her burgundy-red gown. Over the white cloth and red dress, a long, midnight-blue mantle trimmed with gold covers her head, shoulders, and arms. A gold starburst adorns one shoulder. Tucked in the woman’s elbow to our right, the baby faces our left and wears a sheer garment covered by a burgundy-red, gold-edged cloth draped across his shoulders, back, and legs. The child has short, wavy, peach-colored hair and echos the woman’s thin eyebrows and hazel eyes. He reaches out with his right hand, to our left, to clutch her scarf while his other hand delicately touches the fingers of her hand, which brushes his chest. The man in the lower left is significantly smaller in scale so his kneeling body comes only up to the woman's elbow. His blond hair is cut in a ring above the ears, and he wears a dove-gray cloak with a long hood falling back over his shoulders. His right hand is raised, fingers extended, and he tilts his head up to look at the woman. Intricate, patterned halos surrounding the heads of the woman and child are punched and incised into the gold background. A decorative border of flowers, leaves, and dots line the sides of the panel and meet at the pointed top. Areas of brick red show through some areas of the gold background.
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