Madonna and Child

This work is not quite beautiful, i think, and yet it is somehow memorable.   Painted in about 1290 by the Master of St. Cecilia, it resides at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.  

Comments

[marsha calhoun]

I was intrigued by your description (by the way, the link didn't work but I tracked it down from your description), so I studied it until I noticed the oddness of the Madonna's cloak, which seems to be floating above her right shoulder. I agree - it is compelling, not just for the shoulder issue; maybe the faces are what encourage the viewer to keep looking.

[Keara]

Hello Marsha,
How good to see you! I'm at a loss to know what to do with the link problem. What browser do you use? This time I deliberately lined to a a different kind of url, and still did not work - that's discouraging. They all work for me, so I just don't know the way forward. I hadn't noticed anything about the shoulder or gown, but the plainness of Mary's face struck me - quite a different face than the usual. The child's face, however, struck me as unusually good. I was also charmed by the way the mother and child's hands touch.

[Keara]

Correction: 'linked' in line 4 (of course).

[marsha calhoun]

I use Safari, and my work-around was just to Google Master of St. Cecilia, which brought me a list that included the Getty Museum, so I chose that and got it. Your description made it easy. It is a striking image - Mary does look austere, and the child has an unusually interesting face - his other hand seems to be trying to straighten his mother's cloak!

[Kearaa]

Hello Marsha, and thank you for your reply. It seems that there is some kind of problem with Google Art links and Safari. The links I post do work in more browsers and I keep trying to discover how to make them work for you, so far without success. Let's try this - can you please post the link that does work for you as to this painting? It would be nice to solve this puzzle.