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Anonymous church

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Three women, two men, and an infant are gathered within a walled garden that extends off a building, its façade visible to the left, in this horizontal painting. The women have pale white skin and the men have olive-toned complexions. The men and women all wear voluminous, flowing robes and garments in lapis blue, ruby red, rose pink, olive or spring green. At the center a woman, Mary, supports a partially nude and squirming infant on her lap. Mary has wavy blond hair and wears a dark blue velvet robe that pools on the ground around her, with a lighter blue dress beneath. She sits on a chair with wooden spindle arms facing forward, toward us. She holds up the infant with interlaced fingers that wrap around his middle, and she inclines her head down and to our left, toward the infant. The child has blond hair, wide open blue eyes, and a chubby, pink-cheeked face. He is wrapped in a long, shimmery gold robe with brown cuffs and collar, which is open over his lower torso and legs. Facing our right, the child reaches with his left arm, palm outward. An array of shimmery, gold painted lines fan out around the heads of Mary and the infant. Just beyond the child’s reach, a woman in a red dress and shoulder-length, white head covering bends toward him and holds out a golden apple or other fruit. To our right, an elderly man has a full gray beard, and he gazes to our left. He leans, semi-stooping, on a walking stick that pins the hem of his garment. He wears a flowing cape in olive green with a black hood bunched across his shoulders, and a black skullcap. At his right foot, a small hog noses out from amid the draped garments. To the left of Mary stands a tall man in a spring-green cape with a gold lining, which hangs around his knees, exposing his lower legs and bare feet. He has bushy brown hair and a full beard. He cradles a small white lamb in his left arm while gesturing toward it with his right. His head is turned to our right, and he gazes off in that direction. Next to him, on the left side of the painting, a pale woman with flowing red hair in a pale pink cape sits on the ground directly in front of an arched doorway leading into the stone building. She sits facing our right, almost in profile. She bends her head toward a large, bound book resting on her lap that has lines of calligraphic writing in black and red. Propped beneath her right arm and projecting outward is a black metal sword that has a heart-shaped top. The sword’s tip touches a wooden wheel that lies on the grass, partially under the woman’s garments. The brick wall behind the group is covered across its width with a green and gold tapestry or cloth with a repeating floral motif. In the center, a vertical woven cloth of red and gold heraldic designs, with blue and green details, extends to the top of the painting, forming a backdrop behind Mary and the child. The ground is covered with green vegetation and a few small, pale yellow flowers blooming at the group’s feet. Over the wall, which is slightly higher than the standing man’s head, a sliver of blue sky and treetops is visible.
Anonymous Artist, Madonna and Child with Saints in the Enclosed Garden, c. 1440/1460, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1959.9.3

Madonna and Child with Saints in the Enclosed Garden

Anonymous Artist · c. 1440/1460 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1959.9.3

Surrounded by twenty-two men, women, and winged angels, a young man, wearing only a white loincloth, stands in a shallow body of water facing another man who kneels on the bank next to him and pours water onto his head in this horizontal painting. All the people have pale skin. At the center of the composition, the man in the water, Jesus, stands with his body angled slightly to our right. He is slim with shoulder-length, chestnut-brown hair, and he raises his hands to his chest, fingertips almost touching. To our right, the man who trickles water onto his head, John, faces our left in profile. Long, scraggly brown hair and beard frame his lined, wrinkled face, and he wears a camel-brown robe covering his torso and legs. It appears to be made from an animal skin whose face hangs at the bottom, draped over the edge of the riverbank. His bare arms reach forward toward Jesus as he upends a vessel in his right hand to pour out drops of water. The pair is flanked by three angels. The angel kneeling on the bank to our left has red hair and rust-red and teal-blue wings. That angel wears a scarlet-red cloak richly decorated with gold patterns and bordered with gemstones. With hands raised and fingertips touching, the angel holds a gray-green cloak hanging over a white robe. Two smaller angels kneel closer to us in front of the men. The red-headed angel on our left wears a powder-blue robe and strums a lute. The other, with blond hair and a white robe, draws a bow across a violin to our right. A crowd of fifteen people float above and around Jesus, John, and the angels to create an arch over them. They are dressed in robes of crimson or rose red, violet purple, peacock blue, moss green, or beige, and some are dressed as clergy members. Each person holds an object, for example, a basket of wafers, a sword, or a bishop’s crook. A man on the right side wearing armor kneels on a dragon. An elderly bearded man wearing a crown sits at the top of the arch with his hands raised. Small angels on either side of him hold open his scarlet-red cloak, which is lined with peacock blue. A long, narrow scroll curls in the pale blue sky under him. It reads, “HIC EST EILIVS MEVS DILECTV IN QVO MICHI CONLICVI.” The landscape around Jesus, John, and the angels on the riverbank creates a low hill topped with bushy trees. A half moon of pale blue sky encloses the landscape, creating a dome shape across the center of the composition. The crowd of men and women seem to float between the sky and the shiny gold background that surrounds the people and whole scene.
Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altar, The Baptism of Christ, c. 1485/1500, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.78

The Baptism of Christ

Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altar · c. 1485/1500 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.78

An older woman sitting in a tall, wooden, throne-like chair, holding a seated baby in her lap, is flanked by a bearded man to our left and a young girl to our right in this vertical painting. All the people have pale or rosy skin and flat, plate-like halos, three of which are inscribed with names. The bearded man’s halo reads, “S IOHANE.” The older woman’s is “S ANNA,” and the young girl’s reads, “MARIA.” The throne takes up the right half of the composition. The face of the older woman, Saint Anne, is deeply creased, and she has jowls along her jawline and bags under her eyes. With a smile, she looks down at the baby in her lap. She wears a dark brown robe with a cream-white wimple that covers her hair and neck and cascades down her shoulders. A long, scarlet-red cloak drapes from her right shoulder, to our left, and across her lap. With that arm, she supports the seated baby, Jesus. The chubby baby is nude except for a silvery-white cloth gathered around his hips, and he faces our right, looking at the young woman there, Mary. He holds one hand up by his chest and, with the other, reaches for and grips a small, dark red apple Mary holds. Both Jesus and Mary have blond hair, rounded cheeks and jawlines, and full, rose-red lips. Mary’s long, wavy hair falls loosely to her waist. She holds out the apple with one hand and, with the other, picks up the skirt of her moss-green dress to reveal a powder-blue skirt beneath. One of Saint Anne’s large hands wraps around Mary’s lower back. The bearded man, Saint John, kneels on the other side of the throne, facing Mary. He looks at her with dark eyes under a gathered brow. Wrinkles line his cheeks, forehead, and the corners of his eyes. He points with his right hand, closer to us, at Jesus and gestures down at a white lamb, also with a halo, at his knees with the other. He has a cap of light brown, curly hair and a full beard. He wears a mustard-brown robe rolled back to the elbows. Behind the chair, a black wall has two steps down to span the background behind Saint John’s head. There is a white column on each step, and a landscape beyond has a river, trees, and a town nestled on craggy cliffs in the distance. The sky above is pale blue. With tiny letters, the artist signed the painting with his initials intertwined, “HBG,” on the throne between Saint Anne and Mary.
Hans Baldung Grien, Saint Anne with the Christ Child, the Virgin, and Saint John the Baptist, c. 1511, oil on hardboard transferred from panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.62

Saint Anne with the Christ Child, the Virgin, and Saint John the Baptist

Hans Baldung Grien · c. 1511 · oil on hardboard transferred from panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.62

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Pax with the Annunciation

German 16th Century, Netherlandish 16th Century, Italian 16th Century · c. 1500 (shell cameo); c. 1500/1520 (setting) · shell, gilded silver, copper, and enamel ·  Accession ID  1942.9.286