Virgin and Child

Label

The Virgin Mary grasps her infant son, who twirls his fingers playfully in her hair. This anonymous artist produced numerous versions of this tender scene, which were sold in the Low Countries and exported to Mediterranean buyers. The artist worked in oil paint, as opposed to the tempera favored by Italian contemporaries. This thinner paint had to be built up in layers, which create subtle variations in tone. By the 15th century, blue and red had become the standard colors for Mary’s clothes, evoking her purity and her sacrifice. Here, azurite, a copper-based mineral sourced especially in southern Germany, forms the Virgin’s robe, which has additional gilded detailing. Azurite was available in various grades, depending on how finely the rock was ground. A higher-quality blue came from larger particles, as in the rich hue of this painting.

From the 2025 exhibition Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Making Colors in Europe, 1400–1800, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art

Course History

FRIT 34, Sex and Gender in the Italian Renaissance, Courtney Quaintance, Spring 2015

ITAL 7, Women in Renaissance Venice, Courtney Quaintance, Spring 2015

ARTH 15.1, Gothic Art, Jane Carroll, Spring 2019

HIST 96.39, Saints and Material Devotion, Cecilia Gaposchkin, Fall 2021

Spanish 63.12, Got Las Meninas? Spanish Visual Culture and Baroque Imaginaries, Noelia Cirnigliaro, Winter 2023

History 96.39, Saints and Relics, Cecilia Gaposchkin, Spring 2024

Spanish 30.01, Introduction to Hispanic Studies I, Noelia Cirnigliaro, Spring 2024

Exhibition History

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Making Colors in Europe, 1400–1800, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 6 - Fall 2026.

Creating the Feminine: Representations of Biblical Women from Sixteenth-Century Germany, A Space for Dialogue 85, Sara E. Trautz, Class of 2015, Mellon Special Project Intern, Main Lobby, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 8-December 21, 2014.

European Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 30, 2008-March 8, 2009.

Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 20-August 15, 2006.

Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 30, 1993-June 22, 1997.

Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 19, 2001-September 20, 2003.

Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 16, 1997-April 17, 2001.

Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 30, 1990-May 12 1993.

Renaissance Bronzes From The Collection of Roger Arvid Anderson, Class of 1968, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 13-August 29, 1993

Publication History

Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, April, 1986. pp. 44/45.

Dean, Stephanie. "The Mother's Voice", A Video Tape Presentation for partial requirement of MALS Degree, Dartmouth College

T. Barton Thurber, Twenty Years of Building a Collection: The Hood Museum of Art, Apollo (Vol. 162, no. 526), December 2005, London: Apollo Magazine, 2005, pp. 46-53, ill. p.48.

T. Barton Thurber, "European Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art", Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2008, p.32, ill., no. 3.

Sara E. Trautz, Creating the Feminine: Representations of Biblical Women from Sixteenth-Century Germany, A Space for Dialogue 85, Hanover, New Hampshire, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2014, checklist no. 4.

Provenance

Likely Spanish private collection; Spanish Art Gallery, London, before 1928; Clemens Oppenheimer and Antonie Rosaline Clara Engelhorn, Hamburg, Germany, by 1928; by descent to Dr. Wolfgang Oppenheimer, Ascona, Switzerland; sold to Schaeffer Galleries, Inc., New York, New York before 1985; sold to present collection, 1985.

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Subjects