Artwork · 14th century · Simone Martini

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Madonna and Child

Simone Martinica. 1326Tempera on wood, gold ground58.7 × 39.4 cm

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At a glance

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Against a gold background, the Virgin in a dark cloak holds the Christ Child in red, her cheek pressed to his head.
Simone Martini of Siena painted it around 1326, in tempera and gold leaf on a wooden panel.
Up close you can see patterns stamped into the gold one dot at a time, and two faces almost touching.

Reading the picture

5 places to look closer

Tap a number on the painting to jump to its note, or a close-up to see that spot in the whole picture.

Zoom in on the two faces. Mary tilts her head to rest her cheek against the child's hair, while her eyes slide off to the side. The baby has red curls and round cheeks, and he stares straight ahead. Neither of them smiles, and that gives the picture a quiet weight.
Look closely at the halo behind the child's head. Rows of tiny circles run through the gold. They were not painted. They were stamped, by pressing small metal punches into the soft gold leaf. When light moves across them, the dots flicker.
Go to Mary's shoulder on the left. A small star is painted on the dark cloak. Putting a star on the Virgin's shoulder is an old tradition. She was called Star of the Sea, a guide for people finding their way.
Now find the baby's hand. He grips the edge of his mother's cloak in his fist. Along the hem runs a gold band that looks like lettering. That small, real gesture of a child holding on to his mother's clothes makes a holy image feel human.
Zoom in on the hands at the bottom. Mary's fingers are long and slender, stretched out beneath the child's foot. They are so smooth you can barely see a knuckle. Above them rest the baby's little toes, all in a row.

When it was painted

By the mid-1320s Simone Martini was one of the leading painters in Siena. In 1315 he had covered a wall of the town hall's great council room with the Maestà, a huge fresco of the Virgin enthroned. In 1317 King Robert of Naples made him a knight and granted him a yearly pension. In 1324 he married Giovanna, whose brother Lippo Memmi was also a painter.

This panel was never meant to stand alone. It was the center of a five-part altarpiece, with two panels of saints on each side. The Metropolitan Museum suggests the altarpiece may have been ordered by Siena's city government. One of the side panels shows Saint Ansanus, a patron saint of Siena.

Over time the five panels went their separate ways. Saint Ansanus and Saint Andrew are at the Met with this Madonna. Saint Peter is in Madrid, at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and Saint Luke is at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. This Madonna belonged to the banker Robert Lehman and came to the Met in 1975 with the Lehman Collection.

Simone's own story moved on too. In 1333 he and his brother-in-law Lippo Memmi painted a dazzling Annunciation altarpiece. A few years later he left for Avignon in France, where the popes then lived.

In Avignon he became a friend of the poet Petrarch. Simone painted a portrait of Laura, the woman Petrarch loved, and Petrarch praised it in two sonnets. Simone died in Avignon in 1344.

Look at the gold background once more. Four saints on the same shining gold once stood beside this panel, two on each side. They are scattered across three museums now, but here in the middle, mother and child still rest cheek to cheek.

The painter

Simone Martini

1315–1344

All paintings by Simone Martini →

More by the same painter

Saint Andrewca. 1326

Questions to think about

Look for itCan you find the gold pattern along the edge of Mary's white head cloth?
Why?Why do you think the painter filled the background with gold instead of sky or a room?
What about you?A child clutching his mother's cloak makes this picture warm. When do you feel someone's care more in a small gesture than in big words?

Same period