Italian Medieval and Renaissance Paintings and Sculptures

On View: West Building, Main Floor

Gallery number

367 artworks on view.

A pale-skinned man stands in front of a door-like opening set into a rocky cave against a deep landscape in this nearly square painting. The man, Jesus, has long reddish-blond hair, a red beard, and a disk-like gold halo. A muted lavender-purple cloth drapes over one shoulder, across his partially bare, muscular chest, and around his hips and legs. His right hand, to our left, is raised with the first two fingers lifted. A tall staff tucked into his other elbow has a long, white banner with a red cross, a forked end, and a red, plus-shaped cross finial. Behind Jesus, a rectangular doorway with molding is surrounded by craggy stone. The man stands on a chest-shaped stone tomb, and a white stone slab lies across the ground in front of it. Six men with pale skin lightly tinged with gray lie under and around the slab. They wear armor in shades of canary yellow, rose pink, aquamarine blue, violet, and orange. Five of them lie with legs and arms akimbo and one, to our right, props himself on one elbow and looks up at Jesus. Pebbles are strewn in a loose line across the ground along the bottom edge of the composition. Rivers zigzag back through more rocky formations and mountains to a town in the deep distance to the right and pale blue mountains along the horizon, which comes three-quarters of the way up this composition. A few thin clouds drift across the sky that deepens from pale yellow over the mountains to deep blue across the top edge of the painting,

The Resurrection

Benvenuto di Giovanni

probably 1491

Tempera on panel Accession ID 1952.5.55

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M8

Shown from the waist up, a pale-skinned, bearded man faces us against a shiny gold background on this arched, vertical panel. The wooden panel is rounded at the top and has a wooden frame, which is painted gold along the bottom. The man’s skin has a greenish cast, but his cheeks and forehead are rosy. He has wavy, honey-brown hair and a long, forked beard. With his head tilted slightly to our right, the man looks up and off in that direction with gray eyes. He has a narrow, straight nose, a thin pink mouth, and small ears. He holds a red book in front of his chest with his right hand, to our left. The book has brown hinges, and the edges of the pages are gold. In his other hand, he grasps a wooden staff tied at the top with a small, black, square flag displaying a petal-pink scallop shell. His harvest-yellow cloak drapes over his shoulders, across his body, and over his left arm. Under the cloak, he wears a black tunic with wide gold trim patterned with starburst-like forms within pointed ovals along the neckline and sleeves. A double ringed halo punched with a flower pattern surrounds the man’s head against the glimmering gold background. There is a noticeable network of cracks across the painting's surface, especially on the gold background behind the man. Inscriptions next to his shoulders read “SATVS” on our left and “YACOBVS” on our right.

Saint James Major

Simone Martini

c. 1315/1320

Tempera on panel Accession ID 1952.5.25

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M1

This shield-shaped painting shows a young man with pale, peachy skin and curling brown hair standing astride the severed head of a man with dark hair and tanned skin. The painting is wider at the top and tapers like a pint glass to a narrower base. The young man, David, holds the end of long red slingshot with his right hand. The slingshot is weighted by a rock and swings behind his body. His sleeveless rust-red garment is cinched at his waist over a long white shirt. Both garments skim David’s thighs and his legs and feet are bare. Long, curling brown hair frames the ashen and bloodied upturned face of the head at David’s feet. A palm-sized stone is embedded in that forehead. The landscape background is made up of gray boulders, a meandering river, and low palm-like trees. Frothy white clouds sweep across an azure-blue sky.

David with the Head of Goliath

Andrea del Castagno

c. 1450/1455

Tempera on leather on wood Accession ID 1942.9.8

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M4

Against a gold background, a blond woman is shown from the lap up, facing us as she holds and looks down at a plump baby sitting on a gold and white pillow on her lap in this vertical painting. Both people have pale, peachy skin, and faint halos encircle their heads. The child sits with his body angled to our right, toward his mother, but he turns to look off to our left with pale green eyes. He holds his right hand, on our left, up with his thumb and first two fingers raised. He has short, light brown hair, rounded cheeks, a delicate nose and lips, and chubby legs. He wears a light blue smock edged in gold, with gold filigree at the collar. The garment is belted with a twist of fabric patterned in bands of red, black, and gold. Under the smock he wears a half-sleeved, transparent undershirt. The woman steadies the baby with her long, delicate hands. She wears a sky-blue robe edged with gold, Arabic-like script. The lining, in a black and brown floral pattern, is visible where the edges of her robe turn back over her wrists and around her neck. Belted across the chest in a twist of blue and gold fabric, her dusky-pink dress is lined at the neck with a gold band with red and blue gems, with a brooch of pearls and rock crystal at the center. Her headdress is a sheer, white cloth bordered with a gold stripe, rolled atop her head and falling to her shoulders, where it is tucked into her robe. Some areas of the gold background have worn away to show the red layer beneath.

Madonna and Child

Domenico Ghirlandaio

c. 1470/1475

Tempera on panel transferred to hardboard Accession ID 1961.9.49

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M7

Madonna and Child with Saint Martina and Saint Agnes

El Greco

1597/1599

Oil on canvas, wooden strip added at bottom Accession ID 1942.9.26

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M28

A woman and child sit on a throne against a shiny gold background in this vertical panel painting. Two winged angels in the upper corners and two men in the lower corners are about half the size of the woman and child. They all have pale skin with pink cheeks and gold halos. The woman’s head tilts to our right, and she looks off over our right shoulder with hazel eyes. She has a narrow nose, and her lips are set in a line. Her brows angle downward and her chin pulls back, creating a slightly distorted triangular face. A marine-blue mantle covers her head and wraps around a blush-pink robe. The child sits upright with his body facing us and his head turned to look to our left. He has short, light brown hair with light brown eyes, and he wears a scarlet-red robe with a dusty rose-pink mantle draped over one shoulder and across his lap. He points to our left with one hand and holds a white scroll lined with black in the other. They sit on a wide, rust-red seat with a tomato-red cushion. The angels in the upper corners hold up a cloth patterned with garnet-red flowers and black and gold pinwheels behind the pair. The angel on the left wears a muted pink cloak over a sage-green robe, and the other angel wears a bone-white cloak over pink. The two men standing in the lower corners look up at the woman and child. The man on the left has long brown hair and beard and wears a muted pink robe over a long, furry garment. He holds a long scroll in his right hand, on our left. The abbreviated writing on the scroll reads, “ECE AGNU DEI: UI.” The man in the lower right is balding and has a gray beard. He wears an orange cloak wrapped around a dark blue robe. Two gold keys hang on red thread in his left hand, on our right. The panel has a wide, cranberry-red border decorated with black and gold stylized flowers and vines.

Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist, Saint Peter, and Two Angels

Tuscan 13th Century

c. 1290

Tempera on panel Accession ID 1952.5.60

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M1

This painting shows four people, three adults and one child. On the left, an elderly man stands, holding a staff in one hand and a red book in the other. He has a long white beard and a balding head, and he wears a black robe. Next to him, in the center, a woman sits, slightly turned to the left and leaning forward, with her hands supporting a child in her lap. The woman wears a red dress with a dark blue hooded cloak, while the child is nude. To the right, another adult stands wearing a pink robe with a crown over their shoulder-length hair, holding a rod and a sphere. All of the people have pale skin, and the three on the right have blond hair. They all have golden halos around their heads. The background is golden, and the floor has a marbled tile pattern. A small brown pig is on the ground at the feet of the old man.

Madonna and Child with Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Sigismund

Neroccio de' Landi

c. 1490/1495

Tempera on panel Accession ID 1952.5.17

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M8

A woman and a winged angel kneel and a child stands, all looking at a nude, chubby baby who lies on a slate-blue cloth under the ruins of a structure in this round painting. Three more angels and several more people are in the background. They all have pale, peachy skin with wide-set eyes and gold rings for halos. Their full lips are closed, and they have short philtrums over wide mouths. The woman, Mary, kneels at the center of the composition with her body facing us. Her face tips to the left, and her fingertips touch in front of her chest. A white cloth covers her head and drapes to her shoulders. She wears a rose-red dress and lapis-blue cloak lined with pine green, all of which puddle on the ground around her knees. To the right of Mary, the angel’s hair falls in brown, shoulder-length ringlets under a diadem of pearls and gems. Also with hands together in prayer, the angel has butter-yellow wings and wears an emerald-green garment with red sleeves under a muted blue cloak and a jeweled pendant around the neck. Saint John the Baptist, the child standing to the left, has short, brown curly hair and wears a fur-like garment under a burgundy-red cloth. His and the other’s clothing are edged with gold. Saint John clutches his hands together at his chest and holds a staff with a narrow cross at the top. At the bottom center, the nude baby lies with his head propped up on a bushel of wheat on the blue cloth. With his head to our left, he lies on his right hip so his body faces us. A pink rose lies at his feet, and a black and white bird perches on the dirt ground nearby. The facing wall of the stone structure behind the group is missing. A balding man with a white beard and hair steps carefully down a stair near the second level. He wears an aqua-blue robe under a golden yellow cloak and uses a tall staff for balance. More stairs lead to a third level. Through an opening in the back wall, two angels float on a bank of dense clouds in the sky as a barefoot angel stands on the landing, looking to our right. An alcove on our level in the building behind Mary holds a jug, dishes, and a tall vessel. An ox and ass stand in a grassy field to the left of the building. Farther back and on a dirt path, a man with a tall staff and a halo holds one hand up to face a person sitting the grass. The seated person also has a staff with a narrow cross at the top. A man on horseback near that pair gestures to our right, and two more people travel along the path on the far side of the hill. The path leads back to buildings tucked in among steep, grass-carpeted cliffs to the left and, beyond Saint John the Baptist, to hills rolling back to a town and a hazy blue horizon. Pale gray and white clouds bustle across the blue sky.

The Nativity with the Infant Saint John

Piero di Cosimo

c. 1495/1505

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1939.1.371

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M19

Shown from the knees up behind a gray ledge, a woman with pale, peachy skin stands holding a palm frond in one hand and a disembodied pair of eyes branching from a stem like a flower in the other in this vertical, arched painting. Against a gold background, the woman’s body faces us, but her head turns to our left even as she cuts her hooded, light gray eyes down to the pair of disembodied eyes she holds to our right. On her oval face, one of her curving brows is lifted, and she has a rounded chin, flushed cheeks, and her pink lips are closed. Her blond hair is pulled up under a sheer white head covering, and the ends of opaque white fabric, like a scarf, flutter up over each her shoulders. She wears a ruby-red dress with ties up the sleeves, which are worn over a white undergarment. Over the dress, her forest-green robe is tied under her bust, and the edges are bordered with gold along the slitted openings for the sleeves and down the front. Green drapery falls behind the gray ledge, but is bunched up to our right, suggesting that one foot rests up on the ledge so the knee is at hip height. In her right hand, to our left, she holds a dark green palm frond with long, blade-like leaves. Held delicately in her other hand, the disembodied pair of eyes are attached with leaf-like sepals where the petals of a flower usually connect with the stem. The eyes are light brown and seem to look up between peach-colored upper and lower lids. A gold halo with radiating lines is incised into the gold background around the woman’s head. The top half of the panel is arched.

Saint Lucy

Francesco del Cossa

c. 1473/1474

Tempera on poplar panel Accession ID 1939.1.228

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M13

Shown against a shiny gold background, a cleanshaven young man with carrot-orange hair stands with his head tipped sharply to rest in one hand in this vertical painting. His skin is pale with a noticeably green tint. He tips his head to our left and looks at us with brown eyes. His left cheek flushes with a bright pink circle, and four vertical white strokes indicate creases in the flesh above the cheekbone. Visible strokes in butter yellow pick out his chin, nose, wrinkles on his furrowed forehead, and the fingertip of his pinky finger, along his cheek. His long-sleeved, lapis-blue garment falls in stylized folds to his bare feet. The lighter, slate-blue mantle wraps around his torso to his knees. The long fingers of his left hand, on our right, rests against his thigh. White highlights create swirling, angular patterns in the folds of the garments. A halo around his head is punched and incised into the gold background. A network of cracks runs across the gold background, and the red layer underneath is visible in some areas.

The Mourning Saint John the Evangelist

Master of the Franciscan Crucifixes

c. 1270/1275

Tempera on panel Accession ID 1952.5.14

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M1

The image depicts a full-body standing person facing the front. The person is tilting their head down and holding a book in one hand. They have a solemn expression, short dark hair with a tonsure, and wear a brown robe with long sleeves, tied with a rope around the waist. The person is holding a black book with a white spine in their left hand. A faint halo surrounds their head. The background is textured blue with abstract forms and rocky formations.

Saint Francis [far left panel]

Cosmè Tura

c. 1470/1480

Tempera and distemper on panel Accession ID 1952.2.6.a

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M13

The image shows a man standing upright, holding a staff in his left hand and making a gesture with his right hand. He has prominent facial features, including a large nose and brow, along with a somber expression. His head is covered with a tall pointed mitre, and he is dressed in ecclesiastical clothing—a red robe with gold and brown accents. He wears a golden medallion around his neck. The staff he holds has intricate detailing near the top, resembling a small animal figure. The background is textured with blue and earthy tones, suggesting a landscape with hints of clouds or fog, and a brown ground.

Saint Louis of Toulouse

Cosmè Tura

c. 1470/1480

Tempera and distemper on panel Accession ID 1952.2.6.d

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M13