The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Madonna of Humility

Madonna of Humility

late 1370s
(Italian, active 1362–82)
Italy, 14th century
tempera and gold on wood panel
Framed: 91.5 x 70 x 4 cm (36 x 27 9/16 x 1 9/16 in.); Unframed: 79.6 x 54.6 cm (31 5/16 x 21 1/2 in.)
Gift of Dr. Rudolf J. Heinemann 1963.500
Location: 110A Italian Gothic

Did You Know?

This panel used to be part of a larger altarpiece; it was cut down and reframed some time in the 1800s.

Description

The Madonna is shown seated on the ground as she nurses the infant Christ in a style of depiction called the "Madonna (or Virgin) of Humility." This type of image shows Mary’s humility, or humilitas in Latin, sitting on the earth just with a cushion in contrast to her usual depiction with a throne. The virtue of humility was propagated especially by St. Francis of Assisi and found its way into painting since the 1350s in the wake of the Black Death.
  • Private Collection, Italy (Information supplied by Heinemann-- once cited as Prince Umberto of Italy)
    by 1930
    Baron Thyssen, Schloss Rohoncz, Lugano, Switzerland (1930 collection catalogue)
    -1963
    Rudolf J. Heinemann (1901-1975), New York, NY, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1963-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Thyssen-Bornemisza, Heinrich, Rudolf Heinemann-Fleischmann, and A. S. Drey. Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz: Ausstellung Neue Pinakothek, München, 1930. 1930. no. 67
    August L. Mayer, "The Exhibition of the Castle of Rohonca Collection in the Munich New Pinakothek," Apollo, XII, (August, 1930). illus. p. 95, 96
    Suida, "Die italienischen Bilder Sammlung der Schloss Rohoncz," Belvedere, vol. pt. 2, (1930). p. 175, pl. 109.
    Raimond van Marle, "I Quadri Italiani della Raccolta del Castello Rohonca," Dedalo, XI, part 2, (December, 1931). illus. p. 1371-1372.
    Kurth, Betty "Das Gnadenbild als Stilvermittler," Belvedere, XII (1934-1937). listed p. 9
    Shorr, Dorothy C. The Christ Child in Devotional Images in Italy During the XIV Century. New York: G. Wittenborn, 1954. p. 81, illus
    Lasareff, Victor "Maestro Paolo e la pittura veneziana del suo tempo," Arte Veneta (1954). p. 84
    “Gothic Art 1360-1440.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 50, no. 7 (1963). cat. no. 75, p. 211 www.jstor.org
    Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review for 1963.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 50, no. 10 (1963). cat. no. 85, p. 293. repr. p. 269 www.jstor.org
    Meiss, Millard. Painting in Florence and Siena After the Black Death: The Arts, Religion and Society in the Mid-Fourteenth Century. New York: Harper & Row, 1964. p. 136, n. 18
    Henning, Edward B. “Annual Report for 1963.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 51, no. 6 (1964). p. 134 www.jstor.org
    Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972. listed pp. 49, 346, 574
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 1. European Paintings before 1500. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Reproduced: fig. 23, p. 62 - 63
    Schier, Rudolf. “Giorgione’s ‘Tempesta’: A Virgilian Pastoral.” Renaissance Studies 22, no. 4 (2008). p. 504. www.jstor.org
  • Year in Review, 1963, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (Nov. 26- Jan. 5, 1964).
    Year in Review (1963). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 27, 1963-January 5, 1964).
    Gothic Art 1360-1440, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (Sept-Oct, 1963).
    Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany (1930).
  • {{cite web|title=Madonna of Humility|url=false|author=Caterino Veneziano|year=late 1370s|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1963.500