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Bringing the Holy Land Home: The Crusades, Chertsey Abbey, and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Masterpiece

HUAM1926.41: The Virgin and Child

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The Virgin and Child (HUAM 1926.41) By Grace Acquilano '22

This Italian panel painting suggests the blurring of artistic boundaries that took place during the Crusades. Italian artists studied the artistic techniques of Byzantine icons and incorporated them into their paintings, like this one, to evoke divine presence. Therefore the visual echoes of sacred Byzantine icons remained in Italy and elsewhere and Europe for multiple generations well after the final crusade to the eastern Mediterranean.
What is this? By Grace Acquilano '22

“The Virgin and Child” is a tempera on wood panel painting that depicts the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus. This and similar paintings “emerge from a genuine interchange of religious beliefs and artistic ideas among the Byzantine, the crusader, and the central Italian artists and their patrons” (Nelson 281). This image evokes the importance of icon veneration in Byzantium and suggests an icon’s function to serve as a connection between Earth and Heaven. Icons are sacred images that represent the Virgin, Jesus, and saints that have been authorized by the Christian church.

This painting depicts one of the most universal subjects in Christianity, which is Mary holding baby Jesus close to her breast. This subject is understood to have been originally painted by St. Luke and became known as the icon of the Virgin and Child “Hodegetria” in Byzantium. "This configuration of Mary and Jesus’ bodies was adapted and transformed into a new cult image of the Virgin by the Crusades and certain central Italian painters” (Nelson 280). The configuration of Mary holding Jesus against her chest demonstrates that Mary is both the human mother of Jesus on Earth as well as the eternal Queen of Heaven.
Why was this made, and how was it used? By Grace Acquilano '22

This painting could have been made for public or private devotional practices. Many Italian panel paintings were portable in size and weight and, over decades or centuries, could be transferred from an elite home to a church. Many thirteenth-century Italian panel paintings were displayed on altars to draw a viewer’s attention. Others were commissioned by private patrons. Independent panels that were not part of a diptych or a triptych were typically used in a domestic setting.

During this period, many Christians sought a stronger emotional connection with the Virgin and baby Jesus. Not only did Italian Christians wish to be physically close to these paintings, but they also wanted to be emotionally and spiritually closer to them. Thus, by placing these panel paintings in a home, individuals could always be around images of the Virgin and Child even when they were not attending mass.
How was this made? By Grace Acquilano '22
This painting was made using egg tempera and gold leaf on a wood panel that is approximately two feet tall. The paint was applied to the panel first, and gold leaf was added afterward.

Creating an Italian panel painting required many steps. In order for the paint and gold leaf to adhere, the panel needed to be spread with layers of glue and clay to provide smooth adhesive surfaces. Artists would often have assistants in their shops to help prepare the panel before it was painted. First, a piece of plank wood, often made of native poplar, was layered with various coats of “size,” which was a glue made from animal skins. Poplar was widely available in Italy. Though this wood was soft, it was vulnerable to warping. Next, a piece of linen soaked in size was laid over the panel to hide surface flaws. Lastly, coats of gesso, a mixture of powdered calcium sulfate and animal glue, were applied to the plank. Gesso provided the ideal surface for preliminary drawings. After this initial preparation, the plank was ready for pigment and gilding.
Egg tempera painting originated in ancient Egypt. This medium was widely used in the Middle Ages and became the primary medium of Byzantine and Early Christian icon painters. Egg tempera was not only used for icons; it was also used for illustrations in illuminated manuscripts.

After egg tempera paint, gold leaf was used to add radiance to the painting. The gold indicates the radiant holiness of the Virgin Mary and Christ. The gold leaf in this Italian painting illuminates the figures as though they were in an authentic Byzantine icon.

A medieval painting with strict linear brushstrokes often indicates that its medium is egg tempera. This is easily apparent within “The Virgin and Child” due to the rigid lines that dominate the painting. Italian panel paintings prior to 1400 are most likely pure egg tempera. By the 1500s, however, almost all Italian paintings were executed in oil with the exception of icons (Schadler 4).
When was this made? By Grace Acquilano '22
This painting was produced between the years 1260 and 1285.
Many icons were brought to western Europe during the crusades, and especially after the fall of the Byzantine capital of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade (1204). In the thirteenth century many Italian artists were inspired by these Byzantine depictions of holy figures.

Overall, this was a period of great artistic accomplishment -- and, indeed, the beginning of the Renaissance -- due to the visual traditions that began to take shape in Italy at the end of the thirteenth-century and into the fourteenth century.
Where was this produced? By Grace Acquilano '22
This painting was produced in either Tuscany or Pisa, Italy. In general, northern Italian panel painting was most prominent in Siena. Pisa and Siena are fairly close to each other and the most famous panel painters come from these regions. Artistic techniques were easily communicated and transported among these two Italian cities.
Icons of the Virgin were brought by emigrants from eastern provinces of the Byzantine empires to Italy. Italian patrons were intrigued by Byzantine icons. Italian painters studied Byzantine and Crusader icons to respond to this growing interest of Italian patrons. According to Van Os in his account Sienese Altarpieces 1215-1460, “The Byzantine influence reached the cities of Tuscany through the schools of Pisa and Lucca, which were in the forefront of this artistic renewal, but artists and works of art were also imported directly from Byzantium itself” (Van Os 17).
Where did this go? By Grace Acquilano '22
According to the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard, Professor E. Paoletti bought this painting in Italy and brought it over to the United States in the early twentieth century. In 1926, Paoletti sold the painting to the Fogg Art Museum, and it has been part of their collection ever since. We do not know what happened to the painting in the centuries before it was purchased by Professor Paoletti.
Who made this? By Grace Acquilano '22

The painting was completed by an anonymous Italian artist who goes by the pseudonym “Master of the Saints Cosmas and Damian Madonna.” It is possible that the painter of this piece worked with other famous northern Italian artists such Florentine, Giotto di Bondone (1266/76-1337), Roman, Pietro Cavallini (1240-1330), and Sienese, Duccio di Buoninsegna (1278-1318). These three Northern Italian artists helped shape the Italo-Byzantine style.
In particular, the Master of Saints Cosmas and Damian Madonna is similar to the well-known artist Duccioo. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Duccio “brought a lyrical expressiveness and intense spiritual gravity to the Italo-Byzantine tradition” and “bridged the gap between the spiritual world of the figures and the real world of the viewer.” This description of Duccio’s work may be applied to the artist of this painting.
What does this tell us about the Crusades? By Grace Acquilano '22
This painting helps us to see the ways in which the crusades contributed to important changes in Italian art history. If it were not for the transportation of Byzantine icons into western Europe, a movement in which crusaders played a role, then Italian painters might not have been exposed to the Byzantine artistic tradition that eventually became taught in Italian art workshops. Though many people view the crusades as a bloodbath between Christians and Muslims, war over the Holy Land was not its only defining factor. Instead, the crusades also provoked the movement of art objects and visual traditions from the eastern Mediterranean to western Europe.