Madonna of Humility
1374
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1374
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Madonna of Humility is a 1374 unspecified by Catarino Veneziano, a Italo Byzantine work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
Mary sits on the ground, nursing baby Jesus on her lap. A simple cushion is her only seat. Gold leaf glows behind them, like a holy glow. This isn’t the usual queen-on-a-throne Mary. Artists started painting her this way in the 1350s, after the Black Death. The idea was to show humility—Mary as a real mother, close to the earth. It was a quiet rebellion against fancy, distant saints. Look up *sfumato* to see how later artists softened holy figures even more.
The Madonna is shown seated on the ground as she nurses the infant Christ in a style of depiction called the "Madonna (or Virgin) of Humility." This type of image shows Mary’s humility, or humilitas in Latin, sitting on the earth just with a cushion in contrast to her usual depiction with a throne. The virtue of humility was propagated especially by St. Francis of Assisi and found its way into painting since the 1350s in the wake of the Black Death.
This panel used to be part of a larger altarpiece; it was cut down and reframed some time in the 1800s.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Catarino Veneziano (b. 1400) was an Italian artist.
See the richer artist page
