Italian Medieval and Renaissance Paintings and Sculptures

On View: West Building, Main Floor

Gallery number

366 artworks on view.

Shown from the lap up, a young woman sits behind the back corner of a gray, stone platform, supporting a small naked baby boy standing on the ledge in this vertical painting. Both have pale, almost golden skin tones and blond hair. The woman sits with her body angled to our right, and she tilts her head down toward the baby, looking past him with hooded, brown eyes. Her wavy hair is tied back and held with a thin red band above her forehead. A white veil over the crown of her head drapes down the back of her neck and wraps loosely around her shoulders. She wears a flowing, wide-sleeved robe of cobalt blue trimmed with a band of gold embroidery in designs resembling calligraphic letters. The navy-blue lining, seen at the sleeves and collar, is densely flecked with gold dots. The hems of her rose-pink dress, visible at her forearms and chest, are edged with gold embroidery and white lace. The baby stands on the ledge in front of the woman, slightly to our right. Her right hand, on our left, rests on the baby’s right shoulder with one finger brushing his cheek, while her other hand supports his other side at his waist. The child stands on pudgy legs with his left foot forward, hips sharply tilted down toward his left hip. His body faces us, but his brown eyes look over and past our left shoulder, into the distance. He has short curly hair, a round face and cheeks, and delicate facial features. His hands are raised to his chest so the thumb of his right hand touches the palm of his left. Flat, plate-like golden halos seem to rest atop both of their heads. Each halo has a black rim and is decorated with rings of dots. Filling the background immediately behind them, crisscrossing branches of a thorny rosebush fills the panel. More than two dozen white, pink, and red roses are shown in all stages, from bud to bloom, and the branches are lined with jagged-edged, deep green leaves. The roses are set against a cloudless sky that fades from powder blue along the top to nearly white along the bottom.

Madonna and Child

Anonymous Artist

c. 1470

Tempera on poplar panel Accession ID 1942.9.50

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M4

Madonna and Child

Benedetto da Maiano

c. 1475

Marble Accession ID 1960.5.16

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M9

Three men with crowns and wearing gold-trimmed robes stand and kneel before a woman sitting on a wooden, box-like seat holding a baby to our right, in front of a rocky cave and landscape, in this horizontal painting. A balding man with a gray beard and hair, Joseph, and two younger people with blond hair stand around the woman, Mary, to our right, while a group of five young men or boys and three horses gather near the left edge. All the people have pale skin. Mary, the baby Jesus, Joseph, and the three men closest to them all have shimmering gold halos. One balding man with a long white beard kneels and kisses the baby’s feet. He wears a gold and crimson-red brocade-like robe over a burgundy-red garment, and he holds a pointed gold crown in his right hand, which rests on the ground. Behind him and to our left, a younger man with curly blond hair and goatee, wearing a wine-red tunic belted with gold and a gold crown on his head, holds his hands in prayer as he kneels down on one knee. The third stands to our left, cleanshaven with long blond hair. He wears a fur-lined, thigh-length scarlet-red robe and a gold crown, and he holds up a gold vessel in one hand. To our right, Mary wears a lapis-blue robe that covers her head and falls to her feet. The baby is covered only by a white cloth across his hips, and he has short blond hair. He touches the kneeling man’s head with one hand. His body is pudgy but his face has more adult-like, delicate features. Joseph stands at the woman’s far shoulder, wearing a butter-yellow robe over a rose-pink garment. His hands are gathered on a walking stick in front of his chest and his brows are furrowed with deep lines. One of the two younger people behind Mary, to our right, holds a lidded gold vessel. The group of five attendants to our left gather around cream-white, gray, or chestnut-brown horses. These blond people wear garments of dark olive-green, coral-red, royal-blue, or rose-pink tunics over black stockings. The rocky, brown cave behind Mary and Jesus, to our right of center, is occupied by a donkey and an ox behind a wooden trough. The landscape beyond is segmented into quilt-like squares of stylized crops. The horizon line comes almost to the top edge of the panel beneath a narrow strip of vivid, cobalt-blue sky. A gold star like a sunburst with rays of light hovers over the woman and child.

The Adoration of the Magi

Giovanni di Paolo

c. 1450

Tempera on panel Accession ID 1937.1.13

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M3

The sculpture depicts a woman holding a child. The woman is seen from the waist up, wearing a gold robe with black details. Both the woman and child have pale skin with rosy cheeks, golden hair, and red lips in neutral expressions. The child is a young toddler, portrayed naked, with his arms on the woman's shoulders and his feet among the folds of her robe. The sculpture has a rectangular base in red and gold.

Madonna and Child

Florentine 15th Century

c. 1425

Painted and gilded terracotta with wood backing Accession ID 1943.4.93

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M5

A woman is shown from the waist up behind a ledge, on which a baby stands in front of a gold background in this vertical painting. Both people have pale skin, blond hair, light brown eyes, and small, pale pink lips. To the right, the woman’s body is angled slightly to our left, toward the child. Her head tips down so her forehead overlaps the baby’s head. The woman has close-set, almond-shaped eyes under thin brows. Her hair is pulled back and her head encircled with a string of pearls and a red bead or gem, which rests in the middle of her forehead. Her hair is also partially covered by a white veil and a blue cloak patterned with gold leaves, vines, and dots. The lining of the cloak is moss green, and her dusky pink dress is also edged and decorated with gold designs. She holds one long-fingered hand up to the child’s knee and braces his back side with her other hand. The child stands on chubby legs on tiny, sandaled feet. He leans close to the woman and looks off to our right with hooded, wide-set eyes. His lips are downturned, and he has chubby cheeks and a knobby chin. He wears a strand of red beads and a moss-green tunic over translucent white cloth. He stands on a red cloth draped over the center of the white ledge. A piece of a small, round red fruit with a long stem sits on the ledge to the right. The space behind the people’s shoulders is painted muted mauve pink with gray streaks. The woman and child both have halos punched into the gold background above. A branch with two pears is in the top left corner and another branch, perhaps holding an apple, is in the top right. The panel is framed by a raised lip, also painted gold.

Madonna and Child

Carlo Crivelli

c. 1490

Tempera on panel Accession ID 1939.1.264

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M13

A winged angel strides toward a young woman who kneels at the foot of a bed, while an older, bearded man, surrounded by several winged babies and a dove, hover overhead in this vertical painting. All the people have pale skin. To our left, the blond angel steps forward on his right, sandaled foot. He holds a long stem with a white lily in his left hand, farther from us, and raises his other hand to the sky. His charcoal-gray wings are partly extended, and he wears long, flowing, goldenrod-yellow and sage-green garments with a green and blue striped sash wrapped around his chest. His lips are parted, and he looks toward the woman to our right. The woman, Mary, kneels at a wooden lectern that holds an open book near the foot of the bed. Pillows and a moss-green bed curtain are visible behind her. A cobalt-blue mantle drapes across her shoulders and wraps around her rust-red gown and caramel-brown shawl. Mary’s brown hair is partially covered by a golden brown cloth, and her dark eyes are lowered, looking down to our left. Her body is angled to our right, hands crossed over her chest, but her shoulders and head have begun to turn to look back at the angel. Almost lost in shadow, a translucent glass vase with a single stem of rose-red buds sits on the ground next to her. The floor is covered with geometric patterns in tones of brown, gray, and black. A balustrade under arched openings encloses the room beyond the bed. At the foot of one column, a striped cat laps from a saucer. Floating above the pair the bearded man looks down toward Mary, his hands and arms extended in front of him. He also wears a cobalt-blue robe over rose-pink sleeves. Two winged, nude babies cling to his outstretched arms, and also look down at Mary. A trio of three blond baby heads float around the white dove, which flies in a starburst of light. Midnight-blue wings frame each baby’s head. The entire group is surrounded by puffy, golden clouds. The landscape beyond the balustrade has lush green trees under a sapphire-blue sky sprinkled with clouds.

The Annunciation

Veronese, Italian 16th Century

c. 1583/1584

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1959.9.6

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M24

This nearly square painting is visually divided into three vertical zones, with a pergola-like structure occupied by two people at the center taking up the most space, and narrower scenes with more people to either side. All the people have light, peachy skin tinged in some areas with pale green. The central structure has a shallow roof and several types of arched openings—some rounded and some pointed, all of different sizes. A winged angel to the left under the structure has curly blond hair and wears a shell-pink, floor-length robe. A seated woman to our right wears a lapis-blue dress and a white head covering. She sits with her forearms crossed over her chest, her hands in front of her shoulders. Both have plate-like, gold halos. Two arched openings at the back of the structure lead into rooms beyond. In the left quarter of the painting, a nude man and woman are pushed through an arched gateway by a winged angel with a gold halo. A bearded, haloed man looks down from a gold cloud above. Forest-green trees line the garden at the back and flowers and rabbits fill the space around the people’s feet. To our right, a balding, bearded man warms his hands at a fire in a room beyond the central structure. He wears rose pink and has a gold halo.

The Annunciation and Expulsion from Paradise

Giovanni di Paolo

c. 1435

Tempera on panel Accession ID 1939.1.223

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M3

In this horizontal painting, a crowd of more than two dozen men and women gathered shoulder to shoulder at the foot of three men hanging from wooden crosses nearly fill the scene. All the people have pale or ruddy skin. To our left of center, each of the crucified men is tied and nailed to a cross. Blood pours from their hands and feet, and from a gash over the central man’s right ribs. The men’s heads slump and their bodies sag. They are nude except for a red cloth across the central man’s hips and a small white loincloth on the man to our right. Two of the men wear crowns of thorns. The spear piercing the central man’s side is held by a man riding a white horse in the crowd below. At least three additional men in the crowd are on horseback. Many of the men are armed with spears, creating a bristle of vertical and diagonal lines over the group. The men and women wear robes and uniforms in shades of golden yellow, pine green, crimson and rust red, black, and cream white. A few men wear metal helmets, and one wears armor. Near the lower left corner, a woman wearing a navy-blue robe has fainted and is supported by two kneeling women while another woman and cleanshaven man look on, their fingers interlaced and held low. The smooth ground is grass green. A spindly tree with dark green leaves grows up the right side of the composition. Off in the distance beyond the tree, two buildings hint at a city. Blue clouds billow in the blue sky above.

The Crucifixion

Luca Signorelli

c. 1504/1505

Tempera, oil, and gilding on panel Accession ID 1952.5.75

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M7

Shown from the thighs up, a woman holding a baby is surrounded by a man, woman, and two winged angels in this vertical painting. Mary, the central woman, the baby, Jesus, and the other woman, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, have pale, peach-toned skin. The man, Saint Jerome, and two angels have slightly darker peach-colored skin with faint gray shading. They all have gold halos, wide-set, hooded, light brown eyes, long, straight noses, delicate mouths, and pointed chins where we can see. Mary sits with her knees angled to our right, and she looks down at the baby held sitting upright near that shoulder. The crown of her head is covered by a white veil down to her forehead. A lapis-blue cloak drapes over the back of her head, her shoulders, and across her lap. There is a gold starburst on the right shoulder, to our left, and the cloak is edged in gold. The dress she wears is patterned ruby red on garnet red and decorated with shimmering, bright gold designs. She supports Jesus’s bottom with her left hand, to our right, and braces his chest with her other hand. He has small features with chubby cheeks, a high hairline with blond hair, and a chubby body. He grips the neckline of her dress with his right hand, to our left, and touches the hand that holds his chest with the other. He is nude except for a translucent white cloth around his chest and hips. To our left, Saint Jerome looks down at and writes in a book with a dark green cover using a feather quill. He is balding and has a long white beard. His forehead is lined, his cheeks hollow, and his lips parted. He wears a red robe over a white garment with a white collar. To our right, Saint Catherine looks at Jesus and holds a blue-covered book and black quill pen in one hand and a fragment of a wooden wheel lined with spikes with the other. Her blond hair is wrapped with and around a white cloth, and she wears a white-on-white patterned dress under a silver-gray cloak. One angel looks on from between Mary and the other looks up and to our right from behind Jesus. Both have their lips parted. The one to our right wears a pale pink garment and holds up one hand. The background is shiny, bright gold punched along the top and upper corners with a geometric design.

Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and Angels

Matteo di Giovanni

c. 1465/1470

Tempera on poplar panel Accession ID 1939.1.297

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M8

A woman cradling a baby boy sits on an arched throne, which is surrounded by twenty men, women, and winged angels against a glimmering gold background in this vertical painting. The panel on which it is painted comes to a pointed arch at the top, and a gold, carved, twisting column frames the scene to each side. Most the people have pale skin faintly tinged with green and all have bright gold, plate-like halos. The woman, Mary, wears a forest-green, gold-edged robe covering her head, shoulders, and body over a peach-colored dress, which is decorated with gold, geometric designs. She has wavy, strawberry-blond hair, a straight nose, wide, narrowed eyes, and her pink lips are closed. Her body faces us but she looks down and to our right, toward a pair of women on that side of the throne. The baby looks in the same direction, and has short, blond, curly hair, pudgy cheeks, a wide, bare chest, and scrawny arms. The fabric wrapped around his waist and legs shimmers from canary yellow to sky blue, and is crimson red on the underside. He reaches one arm across his body to our right, toward a small gray bird held by one of two women standing next to the throne. Those women and the others around the throne are smaller in scale than Mary. Their bodies face the throne, and most look up toward it. They all wear gold-trimmed robes in ultramarine blue, ruby red, emerald green, pale pink, fawn brown, ivory white, or golden yellow. Each person holds one object, including a palm frond, flute, ring, ointment jar, wooden cross, sword, lamb, or a book. One man, to our lower left, wears a furry garment under his robe and holds a red cross and a scroll. Another man, to our right, holds a book and a large, gold skeleton key. Even smaller in scale, two winged angels play instruments in the lower center, at the base of the throne. Finally, to each side of the throne, over the saints surrounding it, there are two pairs of two angels. In each of that final pair of angels, one is painted entirely in cobalt blue and the other entirely in scarlet red. Crimson-red fabric embellished with gold, stylized leaf patterns hangs behind Mary, on the throne.

Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels

Bernardo Daddi

c. 1345

Tempera on panel Accession ID 1952.5.61

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M1

A balding man with a long gray beard kneels on the edge of a stream, next to a lion, while two young boys stand in a rocky alcove in the landscape background of this vertical painting. The man and boys all have pale skin. The man, Saint Jerome, kneels with his body angled to our right as he looks up with dark eyes. His wispy hair and full beard are streaked with silver and honey gold. The faint gold line of his halo nearly disappears in the background. His nose and high cheekbones are flushed, his mouth slightly open. His long-sleeved ivory-white robe puddles under his knees. The robe is open to create a deep V that reaches to the forest-green sash tied around his waist. He holds a rock in his right hand, to our left, by his side, and holds the palm of his other hand up. The lion lies with its head lifted, looking at or toward us, on the far side of Saint Jerome. The silvery water of the river curves around gray boulders in the lower right corner of the painting and winds into the distance. The riverbank is covered in olive-green grass with some small white flowers. Behind Saint Jerome, the land rises to a cave-like outcropping. The two boys stand facing each other in the shadowy entrance. Both have blond hair, faint gold halos, and are barefoot. They wear gold-colored tunics, and each touches the chest of the other. The boy to our left wears a wine-red cloak and holds a long staff topped with a small cross. The other boy wears a white cloak. Plants and trees grow over the rocks above. The river curves through a flat field lined with trees, leading back to a town with towers and spires painted in tones of sky blue. Pale blue mountains rise along the water’s edge beyond the town. The sky deepens from light yellow along the horizon to icy blue above, where a few puffy clouds float along the top edge of the composition.

Saint Jerome in the Wilderness

Anonymous Artist

c. 1490/1500

Tempera on poplar panel Accession ID 1939.1.280

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M20

A young woman sitting and holding a nude baby boy is surrounded by winged angels and four men in this vertical painting. They all have pale skin, and the people, not angels, have delicate gold rings as halos. The woman, Mary, sits on a white stone pedestal on a stone step, which spans the width of the painting. Her head tilts to our right as she looks down. Her brown hair is covered with a translucent white veil. She wears a raspberry-pink dress under a midnight-blue cloak lined with pine green. She cradles the chubby baby with both hands. He has round cheeks, a snub nose, and bow-shaped lips. He looks at Mary and reaches toward her face with one hand. Two men stand on the step to either side of her pedestal, and two more kneel at the base of the step. The man at the top left is cleanshaven and has wings striped with grass green, mauve pink, pearl white, and sky blue. He wears a gold helmet, a muscled breastplate, a knee-length, lavender-blue tunic, and gold, shin-high, toe-less shoes. He holds a sword up high with one hand and a scale with the other. A tiny man kneels and prays to Mary in the higher pan of the scale. In front of him, a man with darker, tanned skin, kneels on one leg with his body facing us as he turns his head to look up at Mary and the baby. His brows are furrowed and his lips parted. He has short, curly brown hair and a trimmed beard. He wears a bottle-green robe and a canary-yellow cloak. He holds a piece of paper on a pink book braced against his raised knee. To the upper right, the man standing next to Mary’s pedestal has a long white beard, and he looks down at an open book he holds with both hands. He wears a conical, split hat, a grass-green robe edged with a pattern of haloed, winged baby heads against maroon red. He wears gold rings over white gloves and a white garment underneath the cloak. In front of him, a balding man with a curly white beard and hair also kneels on one leg in front of the step. This man also looks down with lips parted. He holds a book with a moss-green cover with one hand and a pen in the other as he writes on a piece of paper on the book. He wears a cranberry-red cloak over a lapis-blue robe, and both kneeling men wear sandals on the feet we can see. Four winged angels, about half the size of the other people, hover in a line behind Mary, two to each side. They all have long, blond, curly hair. Their wings and robes are painted in shades of red, yellow, blue, and green. The angel to our left holds a spray of white flowers and one to our right holds a branch of white lilies. They all look at Mary or the baby. A sliver of blue, mountainous landscape is visible to our left of the pedestal. The horizon comes about halfway up the composition, so Mary, the angels, and the men standing to each side of the pedestal are mostly outlined against a pale blue sky.

Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels

Luca Signorelli

mid or late 1510s

Oil on panel transferred to hardboard Accession ID 1961.9.87

Not on view