The Virgin and Child by Masaccio

The infant Christ eats grapes while sitting on Mary’s broad lap. Look at the light catching his wrist and rounded legs. Masaccio, a Florentine painter of the early fifteenth century, uses lighter and darker tones to make the baby’s body seem solid. Mary’s heavy blue drapery has a similar weight. Her figure casts a shadow against the throne, helping to place her within the same space as the carved architecture. The little angels’ lutes project towards us at different angles. Their shapes help carry the eye into the picture. Painted in 1426, this was the central panel of an altarpiece for Santa Maria del Carmine in Pisa. Other panels surrounded it, including a scene of the Crucifixion above. The grapes connect the child to that later event. They recall the wine Christians drink during the Eucharist in remembrance of Christ’s blood. The gold background belongs to a long tradition of religious painting. Against it, Masaccio makes the holy figures feel physically present, using the effects of light that you can recognise on an ordinary body.