Bronze Age Gold from Wales

The Virgin looks down affectionately at her son, cupping his foot in her hand in an intimate gesture. The traditional red tunic signifies Mary's virginity while the blue mantle refers to motherhood. Cima was one of the leading painters in Venice at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He developed a personal style based on Giovanni Bellini, from whose work derive the motifs of the marble parapet with the artist's signature on a strip of paper and the tiny Turkish horseman in the background. This picture of about 1500 is one of a series of half-length madonnas by the artist and one of the finest examples of the artist's style.