Madonna and Child

c. 1470

Shown from the lap up, a young woman sits behind the back corner of a gray, stone platform, supporting a small naked baby boy standing on the ledge in this vertical painting. Both have pale, almost golden skin tones and blond hair. The woman sits with her body angled to our right, and she tilts her head down toward the baby, looking past him with hooded, brown eyes. Her wavy hair is tied back and held with a thin red band above her forehead. A white veil over the crown of her head drapes down the back of her neck and wraps loosely around her shoulders. She wears a flowing, wide-sleeved robe of cobalt blue trimmed with a band of gold embroidery in designs resembling calligraphic letters. The navy-blue lining, seen at the sleeves and collar, is densely flecked with gold dots. The hems of her rose-pink dress, visible at her forearms and chest, are edged with gold embroidery and white lace. The baby stands on the ledge in front of the woman, slightly to our right. Her right hand, on our left, rests on the baby’s right shoulder with one finger brushing his cheek, while her other hand supports his other side at his waist. The child stands on pudgy legs with his left foot forward, hips sharply tilted down toward his left hip. His body faces us, but his brown eyes look over and past our left shoulder, into the distance. He has short curly hair, a round face and cheeks, and delicate facial features. His hands are raised to his chest so the thumb of his right hand touches the palm of his left. Flat, plate-like golden halos seem to rest atop both of their heads. Each halo has a black rim and is decorated with rings of dots. Filling the background immediately behind them, crisscrossing branches of a thorny rosebush fills the panel. More than two dozen white, pink, and red roses are shown in all stages, from bud to bloom, and the branches are lined with jagged-edged, deep green leaves. The roses are set against a cloudless sky that fades from powder blue along the top to nearly white along the bottom.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 4

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera on poplar panel

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 67.2 x 46 cm (26 7/16 x 18 1/8 in.)
    framed: 92.4 x 71.8 x 8.3 cm (36 3/8 x 28 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.9.50

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Cathedral of Siena, in the early 1800s.[1] Private collection, Tuscany; Alexander Barker [c. 1797-1873], London and Florence;[2] Paul Pavlovich Demidoff [1839-1885], prince of San Donato, near Florence; (his sale, Florence, 15 March-10 April 1880, no. 368, as La Vierge aux Roses by Parri Spinelli). L. Ganetiez, Paris; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 13 July 1889, no. 65, as The Madonna with the Infant Savior, with roses in the background by Parri Spinelli); (Ellis).[3] (Leo Nardus [1868-1955], Suresnes, France, and New York); sold 1898 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[4] inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] René Ménard, "Spinello Aretino," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 9 (February 1874): 118, 119, includes an engraving identical in every detail to the Gallery's painting and writes that the painting "Provient de la cathédral de Sienne, où elle était encore sous la Restauration" ("comes from the cathedral of Sienna, where it was still under the Restoration"). When the panel entered or left the cathedral, or under what circumstances, is unknown. It is unlikely that the cathedral would have been its original location, given the painting's private devotional function.
[2] According to the Demidoff sale catalogue, where the 1874 engraving reappears, Barker acquired the painting from one of the oldest patrician families in Tuscany.
[3] The name of the consigner to the 1889 sale was kindly provided by Jeremy Rex-Parkes, Christie's Archives, London. The buyer is given in a newspaper article added to the Knoedler microfiche copy of the 1889 sale catalogue.
[4] Early Widener collection records (in NGA curatorial files) indicate that the painting was acquired from Nardus in 1898 but do not mention prior provenance. An article in an April-June 1902 readers' forum in Les Arts invited discussion of the quality and attribution of a painting in an unnamed collection visually indistinguishable from NGA 1942.9.50. One Paris respondent noted that the Widener [NGA] painting was identical to the one reproduced, but it is reasonable to assume that the painting reproduced in Les Arts was actually the Widener painting. Berenson then connected the Barker painting to the one in the Widener collection in his 1916 Widener collection catalogue.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2002

  • The Flowering of Florence, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2002, no. 2, repro.

Bibliography

1874

  • Ménard, René. “Spinello Aretino.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 9, no. 2 (1874): 118, repro., as by Spinello Aretino.

1900

  • Catalogue of Paintings Forming the Private Collection of P. A. B. Widener. Ashbourne, near Philadelphia. II: Early English and Ancient Paintings. Paris, 1900: cat. 255, repro., as by Spinello Aretino.

1902

  • “Tribune des Arts.” Les Arts 3 (April 1902): 34-35. Letter 1. Werner Weisbach, Les Arts 4 (May 1902): 44-45. Letter 2:_ Les Arts_ 4 (May 1902): 45. Letter 3: A. Twietmeyer. Les Arts 4 (May 1902): 45. Letter 4: J. L., Les Arts 5 (June 1902):34.

1906

  • Bode, Wilhelm von, ed. Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Gemälde im Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum. Berlin, 1906: 136, as by Pier Francesco Fiorentino.

1909

  • Berenson, Bernard. The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance, 3rd ed. London, 1909: 170, as by Pier Francesco Fiorentino.

1913

  • Berenson, Bernard. Catalogue of a Collection of Paintings and Some Art Objects. I: Italian Paintings. Philadelphia, 1913: 26, as by Pier Francesco Fiorentino.

1916

  • Berenson, Bernard, and William Roberts. Pictures in the Collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: Early Italian and Spanish Schools. Philadelphia, 1916: unpaginated, repro., as by Pier Francesco Fiorentino.

1919

  • Collection of Medieval and Renaissance Paintings. Fogg Art Museum. Cambridge, MA, 1919: 72, as by Pier Francesco Fiorentino.

1923

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro., as by Pier Francesco Fiorentino.

  • Marle, Raimond van. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols. The Hague, 1923-1938: 13(1931):446, as by Pier Francesco Fiorentino.

1931

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 152, repro., as by Pier Francesco Fiorentino.

  • Kunze, Irene, ed. Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Gemälde im Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, 9th ed. Berlin, 1931: 160, as by Pier Francesco Fiorentino.

1932

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932: 452.

1936

  • Berenson, Bernard. Pitture italiane del Rinascimento. Milan, 1936: 388.

1942

  • Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 6, as by Pier Francesco Fiorentino.

1948

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 6, repro., as by Pier Francesco Fiorentino.

1961

  • Davies, Martin. National Gallery Catalogues. The Earlier Ialian Schools. London, 1961: 186 n. 1.

1963

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School, 2 vols. London, 1963: 1:174.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 102.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 90, repro.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 135.

1973

  • Kauffmann, C. M. Victoria and Albert Museum. Catalogue of Foreign Paintings. I. Before 1800. London, 1973: 222.

  • Zucker, Mark J. “Parri Spinelli: Aretine Painter of the Fifteenth Century.” Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1973: 391-392, cat. 27, fig. 179.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 268, repro.

1976

  • Zeri, Federico. Italian Paintings in the Walters Art Gallery. 2 vols. Baltimore, 1976: 1:83.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:266-267; 2:pl. 182, as Lippi-Pesellino Imitator.

1984

  • Scalia, Fiorenza and Cristina De Benedictis, eds. Il Museo Bardini a Firenze, 2 vols. Milan, 1984-1986: 1(1984): 235.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 311, repro.

1994

  • Kustodieva, Tatiana K. Italian Painting: Thirteenth to Sixteenth Centuries. Catalogue of Western European Painting / The Hermitage. Florence, 1994: 237.

2002

  • Quodbach, Esmée. “‘The Last of the American Versailles’: The Widener collection at Lynnewood Hall.” _Simiolus _ 29, no. 1/2 (2002): 94.

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: 416-421, color repro.

2011

  • Kustodieva, Tat'jana. Museo Statale Ermitage: La pittura italiana dal XIII al XVI secolo. Milan, 2011: 237.

2013

  • Langhanke, Birgit. Die Madonnenreliefs im Werk von Antonio Rossellino. Ph.D. diss. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, 2013: 488 fig. 146.

2022

  • De Marchi, Andrea, and Davide Civettini. Pseudo Pier Francesco Fiorentino: Cristo di Dolori. Florence, 2022: 44.

2023

  • Llewellyn, Laura. “Pesellino’s legacy.” In Laura Llewellyn, ed. Pesellino: A Renaissance Master Revealed. Exh. cat. National Gallery, London, 2023: 39, fig. 28.

Wikidata ID

Q20173977

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