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''Madonna of the Dry Tree'' (or ''Our Lady of the Barren Tree'') is a small oil-on-oak panel painting dated c. 1462-5 by the Early Netherlandish painter Petrus Christus. Unusually innovative and dramatic for the time, it shows the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child as she stands on a disembodied dead tree trunk, surrounded by the circular briars of a crown of thorns, giving the work a haunted, spectral air. The painting seems to reference im imagery from the Book of Ezekiel, with the tree a representation of the Tree of Knowledge from the Garden of Eden, which had run dry and withered, but flowered again with the birth of Christ. The golden letters hanging from the branches of the tree probably represent the first letters of the Angelic Salutation, the Ave Maria.〔Ainsworth (1994), 162〕 The lord is presented as holding an orb, and crowned with the cross. The iconography is drawn from the "Confraternity of Our Lady of the Dry Tree" of Bruges, of which both Christus and his wife, Gaudicine, were members. The Franciscan chapel of the Minorites that they worshiped at was destroyed during the wave of iconoclasm that swept through Northern Europe in the 1570s. ==Description== Mary is dressed in a long red robe with a green lining, the folds deeply cut in an almost sculptural manner. Her robe closely resembles that of the Madonna in his ''Exeter Madonna'' of c. 1444,〔Ainsworth (1994), 164〕 leading to speculation that the work is from a much earlier period than the assumed c. 1462-65. Unusually for a Madonna of the time, her face is largely unidealised, the features less soft or rounded, and her expression less presupposing than in his later madonnas or even secular female portraits.〔Ainsworth (1994), 161〕 The representation of Christ seems derived from Rogier van der Weyden, especially in the playfulness and amiability of Christ's facial expression, although given that Christus might not have had access to the older master's work, the influence may be second-hand, through the panels of Hans Memling. The panel is highly illustionistic, perhaps on par with the older painter's ''Durán Madonna''. Christus employs trompe-l'œil techniques in a number of passages, creating a three-dimensional effect that adds to the strangeness and disembodied atmosphere. These can be most notably seen in the Virgin's hand as it lies below the child's toes, in the orb held in his hands, and in the golden letters hanging from the tree briars.〔Ainsworth (1994), 164〕 X-radiograph reveals little preparatory underdrawing outside of a series of ruled lines used to situate elements within the overall design. Maryan Ainsworth notes that this is typical of Christus' smaller panels, some which – including this work – could be considered miniatures, and compares it to the techniques used with contemporary illuminated manuscripts.〔Ainsworth (1994), 103; 115〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Madonna of the Dry Tree」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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