Madonna of Humility

Bolognese · 1375–1400

Medium

Tempera on panel

Original size

98.9 × 59.4 cm (39 × 23 3/8 in.); Framed: 113.4 × 73.1 × 9.3 cm (44 5/8 × 28 3/4 × 3 5/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Medieval

The Madonna of Humility depicts the Virgin seated low on the ground rather than enthroned — a tender iconographic shift that made her feel accessible to ordinary devotees in a way that formal throne compositions never quite managed. The anonymous Bolognese master who created this panel in the late fourteenth century worked within a tradition shaped by Sienese influence, where refined line, jewel-toned pigments, and gilded atmosphere carried as much devotional weight as the figures themselves. Tempera on panel demands patience and precision: pigments suspended in egg yolk dry almost instantly, forcing the artist to build depth through layered hatching rather than the blended brushwork that oil painting permits. The result is a characteristic luminosity — colours that appear lit from within. The iconographic type itself was relatively new in the 1370s, having gained wide currency across Italy only in the preceding generation, and Bolognese workshops were swift to adapt it for private devotional use in homes and small chapels. Now held in the Art Institute of Chicago, this panel has endured six centuries in quietly remarkable condition. This hand-painted oil reproduction honours the original's stillness and gold-touched intimacy, rendering in a richer medium the same spirit of gentle reverence that made the Madonna of Humility one of the most beloved devotional images of the late medieval world.