# Madonna and Child

**Lorenzo Monaco** (Italian, Florence (?) ca. 1370–1425 Florence (?))  
1413  
tempera on panel  
painted surface: 113.5 × 52.8 cm (44 11/16 × 20 13/16 in.) overall: 116.3 × 55.6 cm (45 13/16 × 21 7/8 in.) framed: 127 x 66.2 x 11.4 cm (50 x 26 1/16 x 4 1/2 in.)

Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1943.4.13. [The museum's record](https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.12111.html).

## About this work

The Virgin, in a midnight-blue robe scattered with golden stars, supports the Christ Child as he stands on her knee, one hand holding her sky-blue scarf and the other a scroll with the words “EGO S…”, the beginning of a Latin declaration, “I am…”. The gold ground and pointed arch belong to the late Gothic tradition of Florence, where Lorenzo Monaco, a Camaldolese monk, ran a celebrated workshop. The inscription on the green floor begins with the angel’s greeting to Mary, “Ave”, and dates the panel to 1413.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Lorenzo Monaco painted this in 1413, aged 43. It is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

### What you’re looking at

A woman sits and supports a baby standing on her lap, both against a gold background in this arched, vertical painting. The woman and baby’s light skin is shaded with faint green, and they have pale pink cheeks. The woman’s body faces us. She tips her head toward the baby who stands on her knee, to our right. The woman looks at us with light brown eyes under curving brows. She has a long, straight nose, and her small pink lips are closed. Her blond hair is mostly covered by a midnight-blue robe that drapes over her shoulders, across her lap, and pools on the floor. The robe is lined with goldenrod yellow, edged with bright gold, and has gold starburst-like designs on the shoulder we can see and top of the head. The dress she wears underneath has more gold stars creating a pattern across the pearl-white fabric. A sky-blue scarf wraps over her head and loops across her shoulders. The baby holds one end of the scarf, and his other elbow rests on the woman’s shoulder. She props him up with both hands. He has a cap of blond curls and chubby cheeks with delicate features. His geranium-red garment falls over a pale blue skirt that reaches his bare feet. In the hand near the woman’s shoulder, he holds a scroll with the letters “EGO S.” The floor beneath them is mint green and has gold writing across the front, reading, “AVE.G ANN O.D M.CCCC.XIII.” The woman and baby’s disc-like gold halos blend into the gold background, which is visibly cracked in some areas. The panel comes to a pointed arch at the top.

_Description from the National Gallery of Art._

### How it was made

- **Tempera.** Pigment bound with egg yolk. It dries in minutes and can’t be blended wet, so painters built up form with fine, hatched strokes. It was Europe’s main panel technique before oil.

### [Lorenzo Monaco](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/lorenzo-monaco)

Italian, Florence (?) ca. 1370–1425 Florence (?)

Lorenzo Monaco, “Lorenzo the Monk”, took vows at the Camaldolese monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence, a centre of manuscript illumination. As both illuminator and panel painter, he became the leading painter in Florence in the early fifteenth century, with sinuous, elongated figures, flowing drapery and intense, jewel-like colour. His altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin, now in the Uffizi, shows the International Gothic style at its most refined.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- The artist was 43
- Real size: about 45 × 21 in (114 × 53 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 20 × 30 in, so every print is a reduction.
- Century: 15th century
- Subjects: Madonna and Child
- Colour: ochre
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1362.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1362/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/madonna-and-child-nga-12111).