Madonna with the Long Neck
An elongated, dreamlike Mary with a sleeping Child whose pose foreshadows the dead Christ of the Pieta. Even in beauty the sorrow is written, the sleeping infant already shaped like…
Mater Dolorosa
Just her face and her lifted hands, the seven swords of prophecy in her heart. Her suffering was real and chosen. She stood at the cross and did not look…
Madonna in a Rosary Wreath
A delicate carved Virgin floating in a ring of roses held aloft by angels, the unpainted limewood glowing pale. The German master made the whole Rosary a crown of wood…
The Medici Madonna
A grave, powerful Madonna in the tomb chapel of the Medici, the Christ Child twisting across her to nurse while she gazes past, lost in what is to come. Set…
Assumption of the Virgin
Painted inside the dome so the church seems to open into a whirling tunnel of saints spiraling up with Mary at the center. Stand beneath it and you look into…
The Visitation
Two pregnant women, Mary and Elizabeth, lean together in glowing robes, the unborn John leaping, Mary answering with the Magnificat. The instant Mary carries Christ, she carries Him to others,…