Madonna and Child

Style of Agostino di Duccio

National Gallery of Art

A woman and child are carved in low relief from a white marble, vertically oriented, rectangular panel, which is set within a painted wood frame. The woman’s body is angled to our right, and she looks down in that direction at the child seated on her lap. She has a long, delicate nose, a pointed chin, and her lips are closed. Her wavy hair is pulled back under a cloth that covers her heads and drapes over her shoulders. Her cloak waves in lively but shallow folds across the surface of the marble. She rests the long fingers of one hand on the baby’s shin and braces his side torso with the other. The nude boy has short, curly hair, round cheeks, chubby proportions, and his lips are parted. He holds a cylindrical object in one hand and reaches his right hand, to our left, to touch the woman’s clothing near her neckline. They both have flat, disk-like halos. The background is lightly carved to resemble an arched niche with leafy and geometric patterns and a leafy garland hanging from loops at the top corners. The marble panel is rounded at the top to encompass the woman’s halo and the top of her head. The frame is painted with stylized flowers and patterns in dark red, sky blue, ivory white, and black against a muted white background. Some of the stepped molding in the frame is gilded. A band across the top of the frame has roundels with two haloed women to either side and a nude baby carrying a cross over one shoulder, appearing to float against a blue background. Three roundels in a band below show women with long hair and halos, each holding objects like palm fronds, a plate, wheel, and a book.