Description
The National Gallery of Art's Madonna and Child is one of the most refined panel paintings from Giotto's period of consolidation. Mary is shown half-length against a gold ground, holding the Child on her left arm. In her right hand she carries a stylized white rose toward which Jesus reaches, while with his other hand he grasps his mother's finger.
The image combines the traditional solemnity of Marian devotion with a much more immediate relationship between mother and child. The composition derives from a variant of the Byzantine Hodegetria type, in which Mary presents Christ as the path to salvation. Giotto modifies the conventional scheme because the Virgin does not point directly to the Child but instead holds a rose.





