Vierge d'humilité

Around 1420 Gentile da Fabriano was among the most sought-after painters in Italy, working in the ornate, gold-heavy manner later called International Gothic. This small panel was made for private prayer, and it takes the humble form of its type, with the Virgin seated low on a cushion on the ground rather than on a throne. Look at the hem of the gold cloth beneath the Christ child. The decorative script running along it is not lettering invented for effect but imitation Arabic, and scholars read part of it as a line from the Koran. Painters of this moment prized Near Eastern fabrics and copied their inscriptions as marks of luxury, without reading them. Along the Virgin's mantle runs a Latin prayer, this one legible, greeting her as the worthy mother of God.