The Virgin Mary was venerated very widely in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Music written for her ranges from hymns by St. Ambrose in the fourth century C.E., to Notre Dame organum in the twelfth century, to twelve Marian Masses by Palestrina in the sixteenth century — and far beyond. Music is played for her in many pictures. In this charming Madonna by the German painter Stefan Lochner, Mary appears lost in deep meditation of the Christian mystery, apparently oblivious to the Christ Child, the Holy Ghost (the dove), and even God above her. Artothek.