Madonna of Dry Tree. Madonna of the Dry Tree is a small oil-on-oak panel painting dated c. 1462-1465 by the Early Netherlandish painter Petrus Christus.
Unusually innovative and dramatic, it presents the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child while standing on a disembodied dead tree trunk and surrounded by a crown of thorns. The painting's imagery is thought to be derive from the Book of Ezekiel, with the dry tree a symbol of the withered Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden, brought to life by the Virgin and the birth of Christ.
The 15 golden As hanging from the branches of the tree represent the first letter of the Angelic Salutation, the Ave Maria. The Christ Child holds an orb crowned with a cross.
The iconography may draw from the Confraternity of Our Lady of the Dry Tree in Bruges, to which both Christus and his wife Gaudicine belonged. Mary is shown holding the Christ child in her arms.
She is surrounded by thin, barren, branches, that reach around her to an oval arch. She wears long red robe with green lining, The folds of her dress cut into the form in an almost sculptural manner. Her robe closely resembles the dress in Christus's c. 1444 Exeter Madonna, leading to speculation that the painting was completed earlier than the usually assumed 1462-1465. Unusually for a Madonna of the time, her face is unidealised; her features are not soft nor rounded, and her expression less presupposing
Unusually innovative and dramatic, it presents the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child while standing on a disembodied dead tree trunk and surrounded by a crown of thorns. The painting's imagery is thought to be derive from the Book of Ezekiel, with the dry tree a symbol of the withered Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden, brought to life by the Virgin and the birth of Christ.
The 15 golden As hanging from the branches of the tree represent the first letter of the Angelic Salutation, the Ave Maria. The Christ Child holds an orb crowned with a cross.
The iconography may draw from the Confraternity of Our Lady of the Dry Tree in Bruges, to which both Christus and his wife Gaudicine belonged. Mary is shown holding the Christ child in her arms.
She is surrounded by thin, barren, branches, that reach around her to an oval arch. She wears long red robe with green lining, The folds of her dress cut into the form in an almost sculptural manner. Her robe closely resembles the dress in Christus's c. 1444 Exeter Madonna, leading to speculation that the painting was completed earlier than the usually assumed 1462-1465. Unusually for a Madonna of the time, her face is unidealised; her features are not soft nor rounded, and her expression less presupposing
Wikipedia ...