The Virgin and Child with St Jerome and St Dominic

       The Virgin and Child with St Jerome and St Dominic is a religious painting in 1485 painted by Filippino Lippi. Filippino Lippi was an Italian painter during the Renaissance in Florence. This painting shows the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus in her arms with St Jerome and St Dominic kneeling and praying for her. St Jerome is a saint and a doctor of the Catholic Church, while St Dominic is a priest from Spain and also a patron saint of astronomers (St. Dominic). Joseph is also believed to be included in this picture. He may be the man in the background walking the donkey (National Gallery). The building on the far right side is thought to be a hospital, which would relate to the charities of St. Dominic (national gallery).

       In the painting, The Virgin and Child with St Jerome and St Dominic, Filippino Lippi made the Virgin Mary at the center of the painting to bring focus to her and also uses the pyramidal structure between the saints and her. The Virgin Mary has a halo in this picture, which is symbolizing holiness. She is also symbolizing innocence and virginity by having Jesus but still being a virgin. The perfect woman would not lose her virginity. This shows how impossible and unattainable for common women to strive to become the perfect woman. To attain a child, they must have sex and thus yield their virginity. Furthermore, this painting shows how the perfect woman, when she arrives, will be very different from the “normal” woman society produced at that time. This disempowered women in that era because it disheartened and forcefully preached the idea that no women, by themselves, could even hope to be the perfect woman. Also, it would make the common woman not desire to be the perfect woman when she realizes the deviation from the path that society taught all women to follow.