Madonna of milk

Madonna of Milk is a wooden panel portraying the Virgin feeding the Child surrounded by three pairs of Saints: Peter and Paul, Mark and Nicholas, Magdalen and Margaret.

The panel was exposed in the nartex of the basilica in 1517 and on the south wall of the baptistery.
The group of the Virgin pointing out the benedictory Child with her left hand recalls the Hodigitrie Madonnas, which in the Son indicate the way to humanity's redemption.
The high quality of the board allows this to be considered the forebear of subsequent Venetian icons. The whole is, however, modelled with a monumentality of possible Tuscan derivation; the realistic image of nursing is also in western style.

Closer to the venetian-byzantine area are the six figures of Saints on the side, their presence is typical in many oriental icons. The high quality of the board allows this to be considered the forebear of subsequent Venetian icons.

Madonna of Milk
Venice, 13th-14th century