Bartolomeo Vivarini
Altar of Our Lady of Mercy: Detail, central panel
In this iconographic type, the Virgin Mary shelters the faithful under her mantle, often attended by angels. Vivarini follows tradition in making the mantle blue and the robe red. Other paintings of this type often put the men all on one side and the women on the other, but the right side of this painting features a mixed group of lay people – a widow in the foreground, two young women at the back, and what may be a pair of married couples in-between.
View the entire altar.
View this image in full resolution.
Read more about images of Our Lady of Mercy.
Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.