The Madonna of the Stars
c. 1575/1585
Painter, Venetian, 1518 or 1519 - 1594
Painter
This is one of a small group of loosely related paintings of the Madonna and Child that have been linked to Jacopo Tintoretto. It is evident that several different hands were involved in the production of these pictures, which vary in degree of quality. Some were undoubtedly painted in Tintoretto’s studio, while others may be by followers outside the shop.
Of the group, the Gallery’s picture is the only one with a plausible claim to be at least in part by Jacopo Tintoretto. Within the painting, certain areas are handled more skillfully than others. While the face of the Virgin is confidently rendered and convincingly three-dimensional, the hands, an important compositional element, do not show the same care. Jacopo may have participated in the painting’s execution to some extent, either leaving the peripheral areas to an assistant, or perhaps correcting and completing the assistant’s work after the figures had been worked up. Alternatively, the entire work may have been executed by a member of the studio skilled at mimicking Tintoretto’s types and technique.
Since the canvas may have been cut down, it is unclear whether the original composition was significantly different. Similar extant paintings suggest that it might have been only slightly larger, standing in the long Venetian tradition of half-length Madonnas. However, the presence of the heavenly light and cherubim raises the possibility that the Virgin was originally seated on a crescent moon, as seen in several other versions by Tintoretto and his followers.
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 24
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 92.7 x 72.7 cm (36 1/2 x 28 5/8 in.)
framed: 118.4 x 99 x 8.8 cm (46 5/8 x 39 x 3 7/16 in.) -
Accession
1947.6.6
More About this Artwork
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
(Kurt Walter Bachstitz Gallery, The Hague), by 1921.[1] Ralph Harman [1873-1931] and Mary Batterman [d.1951] Booth, Grosse Pointe, Michigan, by 1923;[2] gift 1947 to NGA.
[1] Published by Georg Gronau, The Bachstitz Gallery Collection, vol. 3: Objects of Art and Paintings, Berlin, 1921: pl. 92; and Detlev von Hadeln, Zeichnungen des Giacomo Tintoretto, Berlin, 1922: 95, repro.
[2] C.B. Ely, "Two Works by Tintoretto in the Detroit Museum," Art in America 12 (1923): 32-37.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1923
Ralph H. Booth Loan Collection, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1923, no catalogue.
1926
Loan Exhibition from Detroit Private Collections. Third Loan Exhibition of Old Masters, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1926, no. 12, as Madonna and Child.
1927
Fifth Loan Exhibition of Old and Modern Masters, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1927, no. 20, as Madonna and Child.
Bibliography
1901
Venturi, Adolfo. Storia dell’arte italiana. 11 vols. Milan, 1901-1940: 9, part 4(1929):684, as by Marietta Tintoretto.
1921
Gronau, Georg. The Bachstitz Gallery Collection, vol. 3: Objects of Art and Paintings. Berlin, 1921: pl. 92.
1922
Hadeln, Detlev von. Zeichnungen des Giacomo Tintoretto. Berlin, 1922: 95, repro.
1923
Bercken, Erich von der, and August L. Mayer. Jacopo Tintoretto. 2 vols. Munich, 1923: 226.
Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Ralph H. Booth Loan Collection." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 4 (1923): 54, repro.
1924
Hadeln, Detlev von. “Two Works in the Detroit Museum.” Art in America 12 (1924): 36-37, repro.
1931
Venturi, Lionello. Pitture italiane in America. Milan, 1931: no. 406, repro.
1932
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places. Oxford, 1932: 558.
1933
Venturi, Lionello. Italian Paintings in America. Translated by Countess Vanden Heuvel and Charles Marriott. 3 vols. New York and Milan, 1933: 3:no. 554.
1940
Coletti, Luigi. Il Tintoretto. Bergamo, 1940: 31.
1942
Bercken, Erich von der. Die Gemälde des Jacopo Tintoretto. Munich, 1942: 108.
1948
Recent Additions to the Ralph and Mary Booth Collection. Washington, 1948: unpaginated, repro.
1957
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School. 2 vols. London, 1957: 1:183.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 128.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 114, repro.
1970
De Vecchi, Pierluigi. L’opera completa del Tintoretto. Milan, 1970: 113, no. 199.
1972
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 201.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 342, repro.
Rossi, Paola. I disegni di Jacopo Tintoretto. Florence, 1975: 209, fig. 9.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979:1:461-462; 2:pl. 329.
1982
Pallucchini, Rodolfo, and Paola Rossi. Tintoretto: le opere sacre e profane. 2 vols. Venice, 1982: 1:195, no. 309; 2:fig. 405.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 230, no. 293, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 392, repro.
1998
Silverstein, Alexander M. "Marietta Robusti: La Tintoretta, Daughter of Tintoretto." Unpublished manuscript, dated November 1997. [New York, 1998]: vii, 71-72, 86.
2009
Echols, Robert, and Frederick Ilchman. “Toward a New Tintoretto Catalogue, with a Checklist of Revised Attributions and a New Chronology.” In Jacopo Tintoretto: Actas del congreso internacional/Proceedings of the International Symposium, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, February 26-27, 2007. Madrid, 2009: 142, no. S31, as Studio of Tintoretto, possibly Domenico Tintoretto.
Mazzucco, Melania G. Jacomo Tintoretto e i suoi figli: storia di una famiglia veneziana. Milan, 2009: 261.
Wikidata ID
Q20176500