The Virgin and Child

The Virgin Mary, crowned and richly dressed as Queen of Heaven, sits on a marble throne. She comes from a polyptych (a multi-panelled altarpiece) which Crivelli painted in 1476 for the high altar of the church of San Domenico, in Ascoli Piceno in the Italian Marche. A pink watered silk – a cloth of honour of the kind hung behind medieval rulers – hangs in soft folds behind her and creases across the edge of the marble pediment behind her head. Her blonde hair is covered with a white veil, and with her sad expression seems already aware of her son’s destiny to die on the Cross. In her long, tapering fingers she holds up a translucent cloth on which the Christ Child is seated, as if revealing him to the friars – who, unlike ordinary worshippers, would have be seated near enough to see the panel’s detail.The Marche was a famous centre of textile production, and Crivelli’s masterly depiction of different fabrics in this painting must have appealed to the Ascoli friars in spite – or perhaps because – of the austerity of their own black and white garb. Luxurious outfits were clearly allowed in heaven: the Virgin wears an overdress of deep blue damask silk – blue being the colour of heaven – on top of which a pink cloth of gold cloak interlined with green damask, and trimmed with pearls, falls in heavy folds over her knees and feet. Her sleeves are slashed to reveal the fine linen of her underdress and there are pearls around the wrists. The gilded pastiglia of her crown and gold collar, and the damask tooling of the gilded ground behind her, must have sparkled in the candlelight of a medieval church, while the flat and burnished gold of her halo would have acted as a spotlight on her face.Both her crown and the neck of her overdress are decorated with small balls intended to resemble pearls. These were once silver but are now tarnished. Pieces of red, blue and green coloured glass cut to resemble gem stones are also attached Mary’s crown. These are modern, probably replacements for original cabochon (precious stones that had been polished but not cut).The Child has slumped forward on his mother’s knee in sleep, his chin resting on her hand, his tiny fingers grasping one of hers. Crivelli has turned up his left foot so we can see the sole and the bottom of his toes. His burnished gold halo has been tooled with a cross and an aureole – a circle of radiating lines – of rays, and decorated with imitation pearls.Crivelli liked spatial games, playing with our knowledge that we are looking at a flat surface on which he has created an illusion of three-dimensional space. The Virgin’s red shoe with its curled-up toe peeps out from under the heavy folds of her robe, both casting shadows on the marble floor, which seems to recede dramatically. The fruit – another ‘trademark’ of Crivelli – casts shadows on the marble of the throne, the red cords of the cloth of honour seem to be attached to the frame itself, and the Virgin’s robe tumbles over the edge of the parapet, next to Crivelli’s signature and the date. These appear to have been carved into the stone. The cherubs' heads in the stone frieze along the base are seen as if from directly above and seem to project towards us, casting shadows of their own.