Niccolini

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Giovanni Larciani (Master of the Kress Landscapes), Scenes from a Legend, probably c. 1515/1520, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.344.a

Scenes from a Legend

Giovanni Larciani (Master of the Kress Landscapes) · probably c. 1515/1520 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.344.a

A person walks across a rocky path with a fortified, wall-enclosed town in the distance in this horizontal painting. The person wears a dark green robe and pink hood or cap, carries a yellow sack slung over one shoulder, and uses a walking stick. Boulders surge to either side of the path, and leafy green trees grow up the right side of the composition. Several swans float on a lake just beyond the trees. Painted in shades of gray, a person rides a camel just beyond a boulder to the left. Other forms painted with thin strokes of red or black could be people walking through the landscape in the distance. A city gate, the walls, and some of the buildings have crenelations. Trees nestle between hills that roll back to hazy, sage-green mountains along the horizon, which almost reaches the top edge of the painting. The sky above is muted blue.
Giovanni Larciani (Master of the Kress Landscapes), Scenes from a Legend, probably c. 1515/1520, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.344.c

Scenes from a Legend

Giovanni Larciani (Master of the Kress Landscapes) · probably c. 1515/1520 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.344.c

Giovanni Larciani (Master of the Kress Landscapes), Scenes from a Legend, probably c. 1515/1520, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.344.b

Scenes from a Legend

Giovanni Larciani (Master of the Kress Landscapes) · probably c. 1515/1520 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.344.b

A woman holds and looks toward a nude, young child, who sits on her lap and looks out at us, smiling, in this vertical painting. They both have pale skin and thin, gold halos floating above their heads. The clear sky behind them deepens from teal blue along the top edge to ice blue behind their shoulders. To our right, the woman is shown from the lap up with her body angled to our left, toward the child she holds. She looks down at the child almost in profile with dark eyes under faint brows. She has a long, straight nose, smooth cheeks, and her petal-pink lips are closed. Her blond hair is braided and twisted back from her face under a sheer, gold-trimmed, white veil, that flutters as if in a breeze. Her rose-pink dress has a wide neckline and the elbow-length sleeve we can see falls loosely over a tighter, spring-green sleeve. The neckline is trimmed with gold decorations and an inscription: “MDVIII.R.V.PIN.” A peacock-blue robe drapes over the shoulder farther from us and across her lap. That arm wraps around the child’s back, and she holds her other hand to her chest, near where the child grips the neckline of her dress. The child sits on a white pillow with one leg flung across the woman’s lap and the other, closer to us, dangling between her knees. Slightly slouched, his body is angled to our right, toward the woman, but he looks over his shoulder at us with dark eyes. He has faint eyebrows, a delicate nose, a dimpled chin, flushed cheeks, and his pale pink lips curl into a smile. He has wispy blond hair and pudgy, toddler-like cheeks and body. His other hand rests on the pillow between his legs. A band of gauzy, sheer fabric decorated with gold stripes wraps around one shoulder and around his upper chest.
Raphael, The Niccolini-Cowper Madonna, 1508, oil on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.25

The Niccolini-Cowper Madonna

Raphael · 1508 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.25

Gasparo Cairano, Madonna and Child with Saints and Donors, 1490s, marble, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.336

Madonna and Child with Saints and Donors

Gasparo Cairano · 1490s · marble ·  Accession ID  1939.1.336