Madonna and Child and Saint Anne,

1480/82–1490

The Virgin and Child are shown with Saint Anne, the Virgin’s mother, in an enclosed garden symbolic of Mary’s virginity. The peacock and peahen denote everlasting life, as medieval bestiaries claim the flesh of these birds is incorruptible. Rather than use tempera paint, which dries quickly and appears opaque, this artist—named by scholars for a painting of the Roman emperor Augustus and the Tiburtine Sibyl that is in the same style—took advantage of the then relatively new medium of oil paint. Applied in thin, translucent layers, oil paint is a more flexible medium than tempera. It allows artists to create richer colors, reflect light in more subtle ways, and depict closely observed details such as the flora and fauna in this scene.