# Madonna of Humility

- By: Caterino Veneziano (Italian, active 1362–82)
- Date: late 1370s
- Medium: tempera and gold on wood panel
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Framed: 91.5 x 70 x 4 cm (36 x 27 9/16 x 1 9/16 in.); Unframed: 79.6 x 54.6 cm (31 5/16 x 21 1/2 in.)
- Culture: Italy
- Credit line: Gift of Dr. Rudolf J. Heinemann
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1963.500)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/cma/1963.500/1963.500_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

The Madonna is shown seated on the ground as she nurses the infant Christ in a style of depiction called the "Madonna (or Virgin) of Humility." This type of image shows Mary’s humility, or humilitas in Latin, sitting on the earth just with a cushion in contrast to her usual depiction with a throne. The virtue of humility was propagated especially by St. Francis of Assisi and found its way into painting since the 1350s in the wake of the Black Death.