Madonna with the Child

This Madonna with the Child, dating from around 1320-1330, is a late devotional work attributed to Giotto's workshop or close circle. The panel reflects the type of intimate Madonna image that Giotto and his followers produced in large numbers for private devotion and small chapels. The painting is part of the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Giotto's Madonnas transformed the genre from the hieratic rigidity of Byzantine icons into images of tender, naturalistic maternal affection that profoundly influenced all subsequent Italian painting.

The Madonna and Child are rendered with the volumetric solidity characteristic of Giotto's revolution in painting, the figures possessing convincing three-dimensional presence through careful modeling of light and shadow on the drapery. The gold background follows Byzantine convention, but the naturalistic relationship between mother and child represents Giotto's radical departure from that tradition. The tempera application is precise and luminous, with rich blues and reds against the gilded surface.