Mary with Child

This is one of Konrad Witz's earliest surviving pictures, dated to around 1430, before he settled in Basel and made his name. Not much documented history clings to this small Madonna, so it rewards a plain look. The Virgin holds her child with the solid, physical weight that runs through all of Witz's work. The infant is a real baby, heavy in her arms, not a weightless symbol. Where many painters of the day gave Mary a slender, courtly grace, Witz built her as an ordinary young woman, her mantle falling in the deep, sculptural folds that sit almost like carved stone.