Madonna and Child

Carlo Crivelli

ca. 1480 · Tempera and gold on wood · European Paintings

Symbols of good and evil appear throughout this exquisitely rendered painting. While the apples and fly symbolize sin, the cucumber and goldfinch reference redemption and the soul. Flemish art may have inspired the precisely detailed style of this work, one of Crivelli’s most refined pictures. It also showcases his talent for visual tricks: viewers might be tempted to brush away the fly that appears to have landed on the painting. In the distance, the landscape is populated with turbaned figures, possibly Mamluks who in the 1480s controlled the holy city of Jerusalem.

Artist

Carlo Crivelli

Date

ca. 1480

Medium

Tempera and gold on wood

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

The Jules Bache Collection, 1949