Madonna and Child 1455 - 1475

This "Madonna and Child" is an anonymous work on paper, rendered in ink and watercolor. Images of the Madonna and Child were, and still are, central to Christian devotional practice. This image presents a specific set of questions about that role in the past. What purpose might it have served? Was it displayed in a church? A wealthy person's home? Or was it perhaps circulated more widely, and cheaply, as a tool for ordinary believers? Consider that the modest materials employed here, along with the somewhat provincial style, point to a context beyond the traditional institutions of art. Religious orders or lay confraternities are just two possibilities. In understanding this image, art historians consider not just the style and iconography, but also the social functions that such images have served, using a wide range of historical sources in the process.