RoyalMail-Christmas 2013


Featuring details from five culturally diverse Madonna and Child images in the Early Renaissance, High Renaissance, Neoclassical, French Academic and Neo- Coptic styles. These pristine stamps come in seven values, including First Class Large and Second Class Large.
Second Class and Second Class Large Stamp
In Antoniazzo Romano’s Virgin and Child with the young St John the Baptist (c.1460–80), in the Early Renaissance style, Mary holds Jesus on her left arm and points towards him with her right, indicating that he is the way to salvation.
First Class and First Class Large Stamp
In Madonna and Child (c.1520), painted in the High Renaissance style, Francesco Granacci depicts the Virgin in her traditional garments of red and blue, earthly and divine, while the bird in Christ’s hand alludes to the coming Passion.
88p Stamp
Jacques-Louis David’s St Roch Praying to the Virgin for an End to the Plague (1780), which is painted in the Neoclassical style, is a deeply Catholic painting, depicting the Virgin Mary in her role as protector and intercessor.
£1.28 Stamp
In La Vierge au Lys (1899), painted in the French Academic style by William- Adolphe Bouguereau, the Virgin and Child are enthroned, with Jesus held close by his mother, his outstretched arms suggestive of the crucifixion to come.
£1.88 Stamp
In Theotokos, Mother of God by Fadi Mikhail, which is painted in the Neo-Coptic style, Christ’s white tunic indicates his divinity, while the Virgin Mary’s blue mantle likens her to the sky, as in the icon of The Flight into Egypt.
Source: Royal Mail
published November 14th, 2013.