Virgin and Child in a Landscape

Master of the Madonna Grog

c. 1492–98

Oil on panel

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A woman in a red robe holds a child while seated in a landscape. The child looks at an open book held by the woman. A peacock stands to the left. This painting is an altarpiece, a devotional image used in a Christian church, and many of the details are religious symbols. The walled garden, for instance, refers to the garden in the Bible’s Song of Songs and is associated with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. The flowering plants also refer to Mary: the blue iris to her sorrows, the violets to her humility, and the strawberry plant to her righteousness. The peacock on the gate may signify paradise while the stags represent the human soul and piety. Recent scholarship has revealed that the artist known as the Master of the Embroidered Foliage, for the delicately patt