Gentile da Fabriano, Madonna and Child (option 4)

Description

The Madonna and Child in her arms was probably depicted half-length, but with the edge moved lower, without the cut of Jesus' feet and with perhaps Mary's full arm up to the elbow. Despite the abraded surface, it is possible to appreciate the pictorial application of some parts of the painting, typical of Gentile, such as Mary's sweet blond hair, the bright turgor of the flesh, the red knobs of the cheeks, the latter stylistically close to the Madonna Enthroned in Perugia.As is typical of Gentile's plates, the gold is worked with extreme care. For example, in Mary's halo runs the inscription in Gothic characters "AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA DOMINUS TECUM", the initial phrases of the Ave Maria in Latin. The lapel of Mary's mantle shows a golden dot, derived from the miniatures of Giovannino de' Grassi. The Child, affected by a fall of color, makes a complex twist as if to free himself from his mother's embrace, according to a lively naturalism that was not uncommon in the Lombard area during the period of the International Gothic. His eyes look for something that must have been in the cut part of the painting, perhaps a bird, symbol of the Passion, or something else.