Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 2986
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Holmes , Megan.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Disrobing the Virgin: The "Madonna Lactans" in Fifteenth-Century Florentine Art [the author argues that the popularity of the "Madonna lactans" waned from the 1440s through the 1470s because increased naturialism made the bare breast problematic; when the motif reappeared in the late fifteenth century , it was modified by making the Virgin less immediate and less accessible].
  • Source: Picturing Women in Renaissance and Baroque Italy.  Edited by Geraldine A. Johnson and Sara F. Mathews Grieco.  Cambridge University Press, 1997.  Pages 167 - 195.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Art History- Painting Breast Feeding Breasts Florence Madonna Lactans (Artistic Motif) Mary, Virgin, Saint in Art Wet Nurses
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 15
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations: Ten figures. Figure One Lorenzo Monaco (attributed) "Madonna and Child," c.1420. (Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art). Figure Two Carlo da Camerino, "Madonna and Child," c.1380 (Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art). Figure Three Masolino da Panicale, "Madonna and Child," c.1425 (Munich, Alte Pinakothek). Figure Four Fra Filippo Lippi, "Madonna and Child with Sts. Francis , Damian, Cosmus, and Anthony," c.1440 (Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi; originally in S.Croce, Florence). Figure Five Domenico Ghirlandaio and shop, "Madonna and Child with Sts. Dominic, Michael, John the Baptist, and John the Evangelist," c.1490. (Munich, Alte Pinakothek; originally in S. Maria Novella, Florence). Figure Six Cosimo Rossetti, "Madonna with Child with Sts. James and Peter," 1492 (Florence, Accademia; originally in S. Maria Maddalena di Cestello, Florence). Figure Seven Leonardo da Vinci (attributed), "Madonna and Child," c.1490s (St. Petersburg, Hermitage). Figure Eight Piero di Cosimo, "Portrait of a young woman (Simonetta Cattaneo)," c.1490 (Chantilly, Musée Conde). Figure Nine Domenico Ghirlandaio, "Birth of John the Baptist," 1485-1490 (Florence, S. Maria Novella). Figure Ten "Il Montevarchi," "Mona Tancia Miraculously Nursing Her Grandchild," 1510 (S. Giovanni Valdarno, S. Maria delle Grazie).
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  • Author's Affiliation: Fellow at Villa i Tatti, Florence
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1997.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0521562767