This embracing posture was a customary way of embodying the intimate, familial relationship between mother and child in late medieval works. Her dual roles as both virgin and mother distinguish Mary ...

It actually comes straight from Botticelli’s studio. The painting depicts the Virgin Mary and a young St. John the Baptist holding the infant Christ, and it’s been in the possession of the St.

After turning Charles VII's head in the 1440s, Agnès Sorel became his mistress and close advisor as well the era's great ...