The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 23, 2024

The Madonna of Humility with the Temptation of Eve

The Madonna of Humility with the Temptation of Eve

c. 1400
(Italian, Marche, 1360/65–1439)
Framed: 191.5 x 99 x 11 cm (75 3/8 x 39 x 4 5/16 in.); Unframed: 181.5 x 88.6 cm (71 7/16 x 34 7/8 in.)

Description

The Madonna is seated humbly on the ground nursing her child. Saint George and the Archangels Gabriel and Michael kneel nearby, while Christ’s disciples appear radiating from the Madonna’s halo in the form of stars. In contrast with the Virgin’s purity, Eve lies in the lower part of the painting. Coaxed by the serpent, she raises the forbidden fruit to her mouth, thus condemning humankind through her original sin. The juxtaposition of these two images affirms the Incarnation and the role of Christ and the Virgin in the redemption story. The deep scratches on the surface of the panel, especially on the serpent’s face and Eve’s wrist, likely resulted from a zealous Christian’s symbolic attack on the power of evil. The artist, Olivuccio di Ciccarello, is known to have been active in the Marche in central Italy. Little is known of his life except that he was an important and prolific painter in Ancona, where he died. His paintings were formerly attributed to Carlo da Camerino, an apparently nonexistent artist, on the basis of a mistaken reading of his signature on a crucifix.
  • James Jackson Jarves (1884)
    Mrs. Liberty E. Holden, Cleveland
  • Rubinstein-Bloch, Stella. Catalogue of a Collection of Paintings, Etc. Presented by Mrs. Liberty E. Holden to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1917. Mentioned: p. 21-22, cat. no. 16; Reproduced: p. 55, No. 16 archive.org
    G. U. "The Holden Collection." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 2 (1917): 19-34. Reproduced: p. 23 www.jstor.org
    Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945. Reproduced: p. 46 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 405 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 56 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 56 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 1. European Paintings before 1500. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Reproduced: fig. 22, p. 59 - 61
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 68 archive.org
    Gertsman, Elina and Barbara H. Rosenwein. The Middle Ages in 50 Objects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Mentioned: p. 88-91; Reproduced: p. 89
    Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane. Biblical Women and the Arts. London ; New York: T & T Clark, 2018. Reproduced: p. 6, fig. 1.2
    Leone De Castris, Pierluigi. La pittura del Quattrocento a Napoli: 1400-1458 : da Ladislao D'Angiò-Durazzo ad Alfonso D'Aragona. 2020, 96. Mentioned: p. 96.
  • Boston Foreign Art Exhibit, 1883, cat. no. 399
    The Museum of Metropolitan Art, 1912, cat. no. 12, illus.
    The Inaugural Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, June 6-Sept. 20, 1916, cat. no. 16
    The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition, The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1936, cat. no. 90, pl. XI
    Gothic Art 1360-1440; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Aug. 8- Sept. 15, 1963, cat. no. 76, illus. p. 185
    Gothic Art 1360-1440. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 6-September 15, 1963).
    The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).
    Inaugural Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (June 6-September 20, 1916).
  • {{cite web|title=The Madonna of Humility with the Temptation of Eve|url=false|author=Olivuccio di Ciccarello|year=c. 1400|access-date=23 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1916.795