"the focus of this meditative scene is the virgin nursing the infant christ. An elderly gentleman on the left bows his head in prayer. Though he is without definitively identifying attributes, his red cloak may indicate that he is saint jerome, who is often shown wearing the red robes of a cardinal. The coats of arms of two noble families of the city of lucca hang from the pilasters which flank the madonna: the guinigi to the left, the buonvisi to the right. The painting may have been commissioned to celebrate the union of these prominent italian families. Directly below saint jerome, a donor gazes up at the virgin and child, his hat removed and hands clasped in reverence. He may be michele guinigi, a member of a wealthy merchant family who was pledged to marry caterina buonvisi. Caterina herself perhaps appears on the right, in the guise of her namesake saint catherine of alexandria, who holds a broken wheel, the symbol of her martyrdom. " [1]. Object Type: painting, tondo. Genre: religious art. Date: circa 1496. Medium: tempera on panel. Depicted People: Virgin Mary, Christ Child, Catherine of Alexandria. Collection: Getty Center. Michelangelo di Pietro Membrini - Madonna and Child with a Male Saint, Catherine of Alexandria and a Donor - 68.PB.4 - J. Paul Getty Museum
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