Madonna and Child

Dirck Bouts

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the waist up, a woman holds a nude infant in this vertical painting. Both have pale, peach-toned skin with brown eyes, faint eyebrows, and delicate features. The woman’s full, pink lips are closed, and she has a pointed chin. Her wavy, reddish-blond hair is parted in the middle and falls behind her shoulders. She wears a dark blue robe with a narrow gold border draped over her head and around her shoulders and body. She looks down at the child, to our right, which she holds in both long-fingered hands on a white cloth. The baby’s head is covered with a fine fuzz. He looks off to the left and grips the white cloth with the hand closer to the woman. His other hand rests on his round belly. The woman’s right hand wraps across one tiny leg, and the other foot stretches out over that wrist. The background is dark brown, and cracking on the painting’s surface is visible throughout.