Madonna and Child by Lippo Memmi

This is Lippo Memmi's 'Madonna and Child,' painted in Siena around 1350 and now in the collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art. To a medieval eye, nearly every visual choice carried a second, coded meaning that transformed the panel into a tool for prayer.

Look first at the materials. The flat gold background stood for divine light itself, lifting the scene outside earthly time. Mary's mantle is painted in ultramarine made from ground lapis lazuli. That pigment was worth its weight in gold, and its presence here declared both her heavenly status and the patron's significant wealth. Now find the infant Christ's halo. Unlike his mother's, it contains a cross, a theological marker that silently foretells his death on the Cross even as Mary holds him.

Lippo Memmi was the foremost follower and brother-in-law of the great Simone Martini, and together they helped develop the refined International Gothic style that spread across Europe. This panel shares that decorative elegance, yet its power lies in directness: Christ looks out and raises two fingers in blessing, and Mary's hands present him to you, the worshipper. Every element, from the gold to the blessing hand, was calibrated for a viewer who knew how to read it. If you had stood before this in a 14th-century chapel, would you have understood the message?