Enthroned Madonna and Child

Byzantine 13th Century (possibly from Constantinople)

National Gallery of Art

A woman sits on a wide, high-backed throne with a child on her lap against a gold background in this vertical painting. Their peachy skin is deeply shadowed with greenish gray. To our left of center, the woman’s body nearly fills the panel as she sits with her shoulders angled slightly to our right. She tilts her head in that direction as she gazes at us from the corners of almond-shaped, hazel eyes under arched brows. She has a slender face with a long nose and a petite coral-red mouth. A marine-blue mantle covers her head and wraps around her body. The mantle has fallen open at the neckline and the right knee to reveal her dark, navy-blue robe underneath. The child sits upright in the crook of her left arm, on our right. Her left hand cradles the child’s bottom while her other hand, to our left, rests delicately on his knee. The child faces our left and tilts his head to look up at the woman while reaching his far hand to her with two raised fingers. A bone-white scroll is clutched in his near hand. He has wavy, chestnut-brown hair and large, dark eyes. He wears a tomato-red robe and thin, black sandals. A spruce-blue sash wraps around the shoulders and waist of the robe. The folds and creases of their garments are suggested by densely spaced gold lines that bend in angular curves around their knees, legs, and arms. In pointed red shoes, the woman rests her feet on a stool just before the wide, ginger-brown throne, which is decorated with inset camel-brown and tan squares and rectangles. The back of the throne alternates between bands of carved decoration and spindles. Teardrop-shaped finials line the back. The woman and child have halos incised into the gold background beyond them. The child’s halo is divided by three, wide, garnet-red rays. Winged angels with gold halos in brick-red circles hover in the upper left and right. The glimmering gold background is worn in some areas and is cracked throughout.