Virgin and Child with an Apple and a Rose | German | The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2024)

FAQs

What is the most famous painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art? ›

The Death of Socrates

Jacques-Louis David

The Water Lily Pond

Claude Monet

Portrait of Madame X

John Singer Sargent

Madonna and Child

Duccio

The Oxbow

Thomas Cole

Water Lilies

Claude Monet

Two iconographic themes are combined in this splendid painting: the joys of motherhood and the sorrowful premonition of Christ's death. The sleeping infant is traditionally understood as a prefiguration of the dead Christ embraced by the Virgin, known as the Pietà.

Among the oldest items at the Met, a set of Archeulian flints from Deir el-Bahri which date from the Lower Paleolithic period (between 300,000 and 75,000 BCE), are part of the Egyptian collection. The first curator was Albert Lythgoe, who directed several Egyptian excavations for the museum.

Elevated high in his mother's arms, the Christ Child holds the end of her belt, a gesture that may indicate the mystical marriage of Christ and his mother, a theme frequently mentioned in popular hymns and sermons. This detail is characteristic of similar sculptures from Normandy.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has acquired the last painting by Duccio di Buoninsegna, a devotional panel of the Madonna and Child above a painted, inlaid parapet, considered a landmark in the history of devotional imagery–from the Stoclet family in Brussels, Belgium for around $45 million, making it the single most ...

The Mona Lisa, part of the Louvre Museum collection in Paris since 1804 and both the most famous and most expensive painting in the world, would be worth US$860 million today, it was widely estimated.

In this painting the Virgin and her mother, Saint Anne, sit side by side. They offer the Christ Child an apple, a reference to the forbidden fruit Eve offered Adam in the Garden of Eden. It is also a symbol of the burden of the sins of mankind that Christ will bear.

The accounts of Jesus's birth in Matthew (chapter 1) and Luke (chapters 1-2) are clear and unequivocal: Jesus's birth was not ordinary. He was not an ordinary child, and his conception did not come about in the ordinary way. His mother, Mary, was a virgin, having had no intercourse prior to conception and birth.

The word Madonna means "My Lady" in Italian. Artworks of the Christ Child and his mother Mary are part of the Roman Catholic tradition in many parts of the world including Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, South America, Switzerland, and the Philippines.

The MoMA specializes in modern and contemporary art. The Met offers more dining options, including a high-end restaurant and multiple cafés. The MoMA also boasts a highly rated restaurant, with only two casual options.

Is the Met or the Louvre bigger? ›

By size, The Louvre, in Paris, France is the largest museum on Earth, with nearly 73,000 square metres of exhibition space.

When the painting went on display at the National Gallery on January 8, 1963, the Metropolitan was already busily preparing to receive its important visitor. James J. Rorimer, the Museum's director, decided to exhibit the Mona Lisa in the Medieval Sculpture Hall, among the largest rooms in the Museum.

The Medieval Use of Enthroned Virgin and Child

If so, the Cloisters' Virgin and Child was more than a sculpture. It was a work intended to engender spiritual veneration and even physical connection to the divine, encouraging pilgrimage and heightening the prestige of the cathedral.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Madonna and Child / Location

Giovanni Bellini, 'The Virgin and Child', probably 1480-90.

Some of the best-known of these have been Treasures of Tutankhamun (1978), The Great Bronze Age of China (1980), The Horses of San Marco (1980), The Vatican Collections (1983), Manet, 1832-1883 (1983), Van Gogh in Arles (1984), India!

The Louvre Museum (Paris, France)

Leonardo da Vinci's “Mona Lisa” is arguably the museum's most famous work, attracting tourists from around the globe. Of course, the 652,300-square-foot museum houses many more pieces, educating and inspiring both artists and non-artists alike.