Madonna of Humility (late 1370s): Art, History and Details

Madonna of Humility (late 1370s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Caterino Veneziano (Italian, active 1362–82).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Madonna of Humility
• Date: late 1370s
• Creator attribution: Caterino Veneziano (Italian, active 1362–82)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Painting
• Technique: tempera and gold on wood panel
• Dimensions: 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.)
• Collection: MED - Medieval Art
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1963.500

A detail from the museum

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

Collection credit

Gift of Dr. Rudolf J. Heinemann

Further reading listed by the museum

• Thyssen-Bornemisza, Heinrich, Rudolf Heinemann-Fleischmann, and A. S. Drey. Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz: Ausstellung Neue Pinakothek, München, 1930. 1930.
• August L. Mayer, "The Exhibition of the Castle of Rohonca Collection in the Munich New Pinakothek," Apollo, XII, (August, 1930).
• Suida, "Die italienischen Bilder Sammlung der Schloss Rohoncz," Belvedere, vol. pt. 2, (1930).

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.