Description
Giovanni Bellini’s Madonna of the Meadow presents the Virgin of humility before an expansive rural landscape.
It presents a medieval iconography of the Virgin of humility seated before a full and shining rural panorama, with both the devotional aspect and the landscape aspect given equal prominence. Full of small details of everyday life, this landscape contributes to the intimate and familiar tone of the two figures. The raven in the tree also possibly symbolises death. The figures’ poses invite meditation on Jesus’s death and passion, recalling Pietà compositions with the dead adult Jesus in his mother’s lap.
Bibliography
Madonna del Prato (Bellini), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Madonna_del_Prato_(Bellini)&oldid=1032296410 (last visited Aug. 11, 2022).
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Giovanni Bellini collection.
