Comparing Lippi's Madonna And Child

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In Florentine Filippino Lippi’s painting Madonna and Child, he depicts a motherly woman holding an infant on her laps, who is trying to flip a book page. This work was painted in tempera, oil and gold on wood. In this painting of ca.1483-84, Filippino Lippi implies a mother-infant relationship between the two figures in the work, the woman as the Virgin Mary and the infant as the Christ Child in Christianity. The infant’s posture of reading suggests the relationship between the mother as Mary and infant as Christ
Child. Also, the use of the expensive ultramarine blue not only shows the artist’s stunning richness but also their relationship in Christianity. Additionally, the depiction of certain object such as pomegranate reveals Mary’s motherhood as well.
To begin with, the infant is small and chubby with blonde hair. the infant’s action of reading from a book suggests his identity of the Christ Child. It is a standard theme of Filippino’s devotional paintings. …show more content…

According to the Met Museum website, it says “No expense was spared. In the case of the Madonna and Child, a work probably intended to decorate his villa, he must have instructed the artist to use the most expensive ultramarine blue available.” It suggests that Filippino as an artist had a very wealthy background to paint with gold and ultramarine, which is something even rarer than gold at that time. Besides, ultramarine was also used in artworks that depict Christianity. It symbolized richness because it needed to be imported from Asia and frequently used to depict Mary. According to the Natural Pigments website, it says” European artists used the pigment sparingly, reserving their highest quality blues for the robes of Mary and Christ.” It supports the thesis that the mother-infant relationship between Mary and the Christ

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