Detail of the Madonna and Child by Carlo Crivelli in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2010

Madonna and Child, ca. 1480
Carlo Crivelli (Italian, Venetian, active 1457–93)
Tempera and gold on wood
Overall 14 7/8 x 10 in. (37.8 x 25.4 cm); painted surface 14 3/8 x 9 1/4 in. (36.5 x 23.5 cm)
The Jules Bache Collection, 1949 (49.7.5)

Painted in about 1480, this panel, almost perfectly preserved, is one of the artist's most exquisite pictures and demonstrates his love for enameled surfaces. Flemish painting may have inspired the remarkable precision of detail in the background. The apples and fly are symbols of sin and evil and are opposed to the cucumber and goldfinch, symbols of redemption.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/food/ho_49.7.5.htm