Small Russian icon of the Christ Child with Saints Boris and Gleb. Tempera and gold on wood in a gold and enamel frame studded with jewels; the icon with its frame measures 11.1 x 10.2 cm.
Sassetta worked for a wealthy clientele, executing a limited number of paintings that focus on material splendor and refined detail. The glittering effect created by his technique of scratching into the painted surface to reveal the gold layer beneath—seen in passages like the angels’ wings and garm
Icon of the Adoration of the Magi by the Rybotychi school, made in the 1680s. It is held in the National Museum in Warsaw, Poland.
Icon of the Adoration of the Magi from the Sudova Vyshnia school, made in the second half of the 17th century. It is kept in the Historical Museum in Sanok, Poland.
Icon showing the Adoration of the Magi together with the Nativity of Christ. It is held in the Spiritual Treasures of Ukraine museum of Ukrainian icons in Kyiv.
Icon of the Adoration of the Magi by a master of the Ostroh school. It is held in the Ostroh State Historical and Cultural Reserve in Ukraine.
Icon of the Adoration of the Magi by the Rybotychi school, from the Church of the Synaxis of the Virgin Mary in Trushevychi. It is held in the Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv, Ukraine.
In his left hand the Christ Child holds a swallow. Swallows were thought to hibernate during winter in nests of mud. Their re-emergence in spring symbolized the Resurrection of Christ.
Icon of the Adoration of the Magi by the Rybotychi school, from the village of Uherci. Held in the Historical Museum in Sanok, Poland.
Icon of the Adoration of the Magi from the early 18th century, from the village of Rodatychi in the Lviv region of Ukraine.
Tempera on panel, made in Florence, Italy. The painting measures 52 × 47.2 cm (20 1/2 × 18 9/16 in.).
The seemingly weightless figures, the startling color combinations, and the moody, imprecise setting all show El Greco’s interest in conveying the intense spirituality of these figures rather than their concrete reality.
Chrome lithography of the stained glass window: The life of Jesus, Paris, Imprimerie impériale.
Ukrainian icon of the Adoration of the Magi, made in the second half of the 18th century.
Oil on canvas painting by Jusepe de Ribera of the boy Jesus among the teachers in the Temple, dated 1612-1613.
Etching in black on off-white laid paper
from William Hole's series of THE LIFE OF CHRIST, which was published in the UK and in the USA both (in various books and publications) before 1923.
The Virgin Mary, known as "the rose without thorns" for having been born free of original sin, holds the symbolic flower while sitting upon the Throne of Wisdom. The scroll held by an angel reads: "Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled...
Donato de’ Bardi’s style brings together Netherlandish and French influences, focusing on refined detail and careful study of light. At the center of this painting, which is still in its original frame, Donato captures the sheltering affection between the infant Christ and Madonna. Gesturing to the goldfinch in his...
This work plays with our expectations of the flatness of the painted surface. Using a technique of gilded gesso, the artist gave Saint Nicholas’s miter and the crowns of the holy figures a raised surface. The Virgin’s robes and the intricate, angled throne also create a sense of...
These three panels are from an altarpiece painted for a Dominican church in the Marchigian town of Ascoli Piceno. It is possible that the child was originally shown reaching for a flying bird, his frequent attribute. The cracked marble dais is a recurrent feature of Crivelli's work. On...
Foppa was the founder of Renaissance painting in Milan, where he worked for the dukes. In addition to major fresco cycles and altarpieces, he also painted touching images of the Madonna and Child for private devotion. This one dates to about 1480 and shows them before a rose hedge—the...
Images of the Virgin Eleousa, the Virgin of Compassion, developed in the later Byzantine centuries and profoundly influenced the art of the Latin West. Here, the intimate poses of the heads and hands display the warm emotional attachment of the Virgin and Child. The fifteenth-century Latin inscription on the...
This small tapestry depicts the infant Jesus pressing grapes into a chalice. The imagery was widely understood at the time of its creation to reference the physical sacrifice Jesus would later make in his crucifixion. In the Christian ritual of the Eucharist, followers drink holy wine to remember Jesus’s...
