Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome, Saint Bernardino, and Angels

Sano di Pietro

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the waist up, a woman and the baby she holds are surrounded by two gray-haired men and four blond angels in this vertical painting. They all have pale skin, gold halos, and brown or gray eyes. At the center of the painting, the woman, Mary, has almond-shaped eyes under thin, arched brows, a long nose, a small, coral-pink mouth, and a narrow chin. Her hair is covered by a long, off-white veil and a cobalt-blue mantle that drapes over her head and around her body. The neckline and cuffs of her rust-orange and gold robe peek out from under the mantle, which is bordered with a delicate gold pattern with a gold star on her left shoulder. The child, Jesus sits upright on Mary’s right arm, on our left, and that hand supports his bottom. Her other hand lies over his bare feet. Jesus’s body is turned toward Mary, but his head is turned back to look to our left. He wears a long, gold and dusty-rose robe over a garment with bronze-colored sleeves. A petal-pink mantle is draped across his back and tucked under his bottom. Jesus touches Mary’s mantle near the neckline with one hand and holds a bird in the other hand. The bird is a little larger than his hand and has a strawberry-red face, light gray body, and brown, gold, and black wings. The people on either side of Mary and Jesus are stacked vertically and turn inward to gaze at the central pair. In the lower left, a balding man with a long gray beard holds his hands in prayer while clutching a rosary made with black beads. In the lower right, a cleanshaven man with his gray hair cut in a tonsure also stands with hands in prayer. Two blond angels lean into the painting from each side. They all have blond hair, small, dark pink mouths, and they wear wreaths of pink roses or green leaves. They are all set against a gold background. Tiny, round holes across the surface pierce through at least the top layer.