Madonna of the Strawberries (M 058) Jigsaw Puzzle

Do you like strawberries? This jigsaw puzzle features a charming scene of Mary reading in a garden with a strawberry patch. + Mary’s garden is set in Paradise. In both Byzantine art and Mediaeval European art, undifferentiated gold backgrounds are common. Since the dawn of civilisation, gold has been prized for its rarity and value, for its colour and sheen, and for its virtual indestructibility (gold does not corrode under normal conditions and is insoluble except by the acid aqua regia). As such, in Christianity, gold became a symbol of eternity, the Godhead, and Paradise. + Mary, the Queen of Heaven, wears an elaborate crown studded with gemstones. Over a belted, crimson red tunic, she wears a dark sapphire blue mantle. With her right hand, she holds an open book with a red binding; with her left, she hands a white rose to the Christ Child at her knee. Dressed in a belted white tunic with gold trim, the Christ Child reaches up to claim the proffered bloom with his left hand. He wears an unusual triform halo symbolic of the Trinity but without its encompassing circle, an idiosyncrasy of the artist. In his right hand, he holds a jug. + The Paradisical landscape is rife with birds and plants. In the background are trellises supporting rose bushes (red on the right; white on the left). At the Virgin’s feet are lilies of the valley and snowdrops among other plants. And, just behind her, running the width of the painting are the strawberry plants…. In Mediaeval Europe, the strawberry plant was a popular motif in art conveying multi-layered spiritual meanings. The plant itself was regarded as a symbol of humility: it grows low to the ground and, when laden with fruit, appears to bow down. Each petiole or leaf stem has three leaflets that can represent the Trinity. On the one hand, the strawberry’s fruits and its flowers symbolise Christ’s Passion: strawberry flowers have five petals, one for each of His Five Wounds, and the downward-pointing fruits resemble drops of His Blood. On the other hand, its fruits and flowers symbolise Mary, the Blessed Virgin: its white flowers symbolising her purity; and its red fruit, the fruit of her womb Jesus. Today, in the language of flowers, the strawberry still stands for perfect goodness. + Image Credit (M 058): The Madonna of the Strawberries, by an anonymous artist known as the Upper Rhenish Master who was active ca. 1410–30 possibly in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, tempera on wood, 34.2 in. wide x 57.2 in. high (87 cm. x 145.5 cm.), Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Switzerland. From Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-SA 3.0). The image file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighbouring rights. + Image Credit (Strawberries): From Wikimedia Commons. The image is part of the Pomological Watercolor Collection, held by National Agricultural Library of United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain in the United States. See the NAL copyright statement (http://www.nal.usda.gov/web-policies-and-important-links#copy) for details.