Madonna and Child in a Niche c. 1520

Joos van Cleve painted this Madonna and Child in a Niche on a thin wood panel sometime in the early 16th century. Oil paint transforms humble materials into something extraordinary. Pigments, ground and suspended in oil, become luminous layers with almost endless possibilities. This panel is all about sheen: the Virgin’s flawless skin, the folds of her opulent red robe, the gleam of the architecture, and the reflective surfaces on the table before her. Each of these effects required skill, labor, and careful attention. Consider the red robe: to achieve that depth of color, the artist would have used a pigment derived from the dried bodies of insects, laboriously collected, processed, and traded over long distances. The painting is a testament to the global economy that was already well underway in the Renaissance. So, although we may think of the Madonna and Child as timeless subjects, this one is inextricably bound to its moment in history.