Madonna and Child 

Ambrogio Bergognone painted this Madonna and Child, an oil on panel artwork now in the Rijksmuseum. Observe the rosary beads held by the Christ Child, a potent symbol of devotion and the mysteries of faith, echoing across centuries from ancient prayer beads used in various cultures. This string of beads—a tool for contemplation—takes us back to earlier, pagan forms of repetitive chanting and counting. The act of counting prayers, a common practice, reminds us of the human desire to quantify the divine. The Madonna, haloed and serene, introduces us to the cycle of life and death. Consider the fruit in her hand, representative of earthly life, a cyclical symbol of fertility, reminiscent of similar imagery in ancient Greek art, where fruit offerings signified abundance and divine favor. This connection evokes the deep, subconscious hope for renewal and continuity embedded in the human psyche.