Carlo Crivelli

Venetian, c. 1430/1435 - 1495

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Italian Renaissance painter (c. 1430–c. 1495)

Explore Selected Works

Carlo Crivelli, Madonna and Child, c. 1490, tempera on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.264

Madonna and Child

Carlo Crivelli · c. 1490 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.264

A young woman sits with a small child standing on her lap on an ornate throne as a third person, tiny in scale, kneels and looks up from the lower left corner in this tall, narrow, vertical painting, which has an arched top. The woman and child have pale skin and flat gold halos behind their heads, and the tiny person near the corner has light brown skin. The woman’s body faces us and her head tilts to her right, our left, toward the child, but she cuts her pale eyes down and slightly to our right. She has a delicate, long nose and her small lips are closed in a straight line. A white veil covering blond hair is, in turn, covered with a midnight-blue mantle that falls over her head, shoulders, and body. The underside of her cloak is emerald green where it turns back down over her chest and across her lap. The bottom hem is lined with a wide decorative band with scrolling vines and leaves in gold, and it pools around her feet on the floor. She wears a raspberry-red dress with gold vines over the chest and pearls lining the neckline. With her left hand, on our right, she supports the child on one hip. Her other hand braces the stem of the green apple the baby holds in both hands. Short, blond curls frame the baby’s face. He looks up and to our right with light eyes. He has a short, rounded nose and his lips are parted. His head is large like a baby's, but the proportions of his torso, arms, and legs more closely resemble those of an adult. He wears a pale, rose-pink tunic edged with gold, and his legs and feet are bare. The elaborate throne has an arched top that mirrors the top edge of the arched panel. An inscription in the stone up along the curve of the throne reads, “MEMENTO MEI MATER DEI REGINA CELI LETARE.” A garland of pale green and red fruit, probably apples, hangs behind the woman’s head. There are fantastical creatures where the arms of the throne would be. Carved from the same nickel-gray stone, each arm is made up of dog's face, with mouth wide open and braced against the seat of the chair. A husk-like covering curves up and back to a section of fish's scales, and each arm ends with an ornament like a bunch of grapes where it meets the back. A scarlet-red cloth hangs behind the thorne, against a gold wall, with a salmon-pink floor below. The miniature kneeling man near the lower right corner is only ankle high. His dark hair is cut into a ring around his head. He has a darker complexion and wrinkles around his mouth. He wears long, topaz-blue garment over a black robe. He holds his hands in prayer and looks up at the woman and baby, lips parted. Scaled to the woman, a jeweled crown sits on the floor nearby, projecting behond the front face of a panel of stone with a shell painted at its center.
Carlo Crivelli, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Donor, 1470, tempera on poplar panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.6

Madonna and Child Enthroned with Donor

Carlo Crivelli · 1470 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.6

Bibliography

1900

  • Rushforth, G. McNeil. Carlo Crivelli. London, 1900.

1961

  • Bovero, Anna. Tutta la pittura del Crivelli. Milan, 1961.

1986

  • Zampetti, Pietro. Carlo Crivelli. Florence, 1986.

1996

  • Tolley, Thomas. "Carlo Crivelli." In The Dictionary of Art. Edited by Jane Turner. 34 vols. New York and London, 1996: 8:166-172.

1997

  • De Vecchi, Pierluigi, ed. Itinerari crivelleschi nelle Marche. Ripatransone (Ascoli Piceno), 1997.

2003

  • Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 230.