Visiting The Met? The Temple of Dendur will be closed Sunday, April 27 through Friday, May 9. The Met Fifth Avenue will be closed Monday, May 5.

Learn more

Why is the virgin Mary so sad in this piece?

"It’s an expression that can be dead, unless we engage ourselves in it."

"It's an expression that can be dead, unless we engage ourselves in it."

Curator Keith Christiansen on "Madonna and Child," a painting by Berlinghiero.

Explore this object:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435658

Throughout 2013, The Metropolitan Museum of Art invited curators from across the Museum to each talk about one artwork that changed the way they see the world. Each episode is interpreted by a Museum photographer.

Photography by Mark Morosse

Rights & Permissions
Consortium, Edward Barbieri, Director, 'I sat down under his shadow' by Edward C Bairstow © Oxford University Press 1925. All rights reserved. Recorded 1998 on Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Deux-Elles Limited, DXL827

Subscribe for new content from The Met: https://www.youtube.com/user/metmuseum?sub_confirmation=1

#TheMet #ArtExplained #Art


Contributors

Keith Christiansen
John Pope-Hennessy Chairman, Department of European Paintings

Close-up of a Queen of Clubs playing card with a cut-out section. Behind it, a faded, ghostly face is visible, creating a surreal, mysterious mood.
The artist’s work challenges the social and political context of mass incarceration.
Lisa Sutcliffe
April 28
Photo image of The Great Hall of the Met, with hanging calligraphy paintings
Explore how the Taiwanese artist’s Great Hall Commission invites a transhistorical conversation about the art of writing
Lesley Ma
February 28
More in:Art ExplainedReligion & Spirituality

A slider containing 1 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Madonna and Child, Berlinghiero  Italian, Tempera on wood, gold ground
Berlinghiero
possibly 1230s