Madonna and Child

Lorenzo Veneziano, the leading Venetian painter of the third quarter of the Trecento, created this Madonna and Child around 1372 in the distinctive style that marked Venice's emergence as a major center of Gothic painting. Lorenzo was pivotal in moving Venetian art beyond its Byzantine inheritance toward the more naturalistic and emotionally expressive modes of the Gothic, while retaining the sumptuous color and decorative richness that would define the Venetian tradition. The panel is now in the Louvre.

Executed in tempera and gold on panel, the painting displays Lorenzo Veneziano's characteristic synthesis of residual Byzantine gold ground conventions with Gothic naturalism in the figural treatment. The Virgin's softly modeled face and the Child's lively gestures are set against elaborate tooled gold with intricate punchwork patterns.