Madonna with the Siskin

Albrecht Dürer painted the Madonna with the Siskin in Venice in 1506. The picture shows the Virgin and Child enthroned amidst a wide landscape and is full of symbolic allusions.

In front of Mother and Child stands the boy John the Baptist, recognisable by his goat-skin garment.

He is accompanied by an angel, who carries the cross-shaped staff of the Baptist.

John hands Mary a bouquet of lilies of the valley. The flower’s pure white petals symbolise the Virgin’s immaculate conception.

The Infant’s shirt is open and he is fully exposed.

In his right hand, he holds a type of pacifier. A siskin has come to perch on his left arm.

With his head tilted to the right, Christ seems to listen to the bird.

As the siskin eats thistles and thorns, he was seen as foreshadowing the Passion of Christ.

The landscape behind the red cloth of honor of the throne is made up of farmsteads and the ruins of King David’s palace; the latter refer to Jesus’s status as the heir of David.

Dürer painted this picture around the same time as his „Feast of the Rosary“, which was made for the community of the German merchants in Venice. The Madonna with the siskin, too, is crowned with roses by angels.