A Day On Wikipedia

[[Image:Sano di Pietro. Madonna of Mercy.1440s Private coll..jpg|thumb|[[Sano di Pietro]], 15th century; the Virgin shelters a group of nuns]]
The ”’Virgin of Mercy”’ is a subject in [[Christian art]], showing a group of people sheltering under the outspread cloak of [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|the Virgin Mary]]. It was especially popular in Italy from the 13th to 16th centuries, and is also found in other countries and later art. In Italian it is known as the ”’Madonna della Misericordia”’, in German as the ”’Schutzmantelmadonna”’ (Sheltering-cloak Madonna), and in French as the ‘Vièrge au Manteau’ or ‘Vierge de Miséricorde’ (Virgin with a cloak, or of Mercy).

Usually the Virgin is standing alone, though if angels hold up the cloak she is free to hold the infant Christ. The people sheltering usually kneel, and are of necessity shown usually at a much smaller scale. They may be generalised, or represent a non-specific local population, but the subject was often commissioned by specific groups such as families, confraternities, guilds or convents or abbeys, and then the figures may represent these specific groups in their dress, or by the 15th century, by individual portraits. Sometimes arrows rain down from above, which the cloak prevents from reaching the people.

==Examples with articles==
*[[Madonna della Misericordia (Piero della Francesca)]], 1445-62

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[[Category:Depictions of the Virgin Mary]]