Neroccio de' Landi

Neroccio di Bartolommeo de' Landi
Landi, Neroccio di Bartolomeo Benedetto de'

Sienese, 1447 - 1500

Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution – Share Alike License

Italian painter and sculptor of the early-Renaissance or Quattrocento period in Siena (1447-1500)

Explore Selected Works

Neroccio de' Landi, Madonna and Child with Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Sigismund, c. 1490/1495, tempera on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.17

Madonna and Child with Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Sigismund

Neroccio de' Landi · c. 1490/1495 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.17

A young, pale-skinned woman with long, blond hair and wearing a coral-red gown stands on a pedestal before a landscape filled with people in this vertical painting. The painting has an arched top, and the woman who fills most of the view is Claudia Quinta. Her hair is adorned with strands of pearls, and a larger pearl hangs from a piece of jewelry like a brooch at the top center over her forehead. A sheer veil covers the back of her head. Her body faces us but she turns her head slightly to our right, so she gazes at us from the corners of her light hazel eyes. A pearl necklace with a square gold, sapphire-blue jewel and pearl pendant encircles her neck. The brown sleeves of her dress are flecked densely with short gold lines, and white fabric shows at gaps over the elbows. The red bodice has a high waist tied with a brown belt, which also holds sheer fabric in place so it falls to her knees over the long red skirt. The skirt is bordered with a gold geometric design along the bottom hem, which stops just short of her sandaled feet. In her right hand, on our left, she holds a small, navy-blue boat with a gold figure standing in it. Her other hand rests by her left thigh, to our right. She balances near the front edge of the rectangular pedestal, which is pale violet purple. On the front face, two winged, chubby children are painted white to resemble stone carvings. They brace a panel bordered in gold. The plaque has a teal-blue background, and gold letters read, “CLAVDIA CASTA FVI NEC VVLGVS CREDIDIT AMEN ET TAMEN ID QVOD ERAM TESTIS MIHI PRORA PROBAVIT CONSILIVM ET VIRTVS SVPERANT MATERQVE DEORVM ALMA PLACET POPVLO ET PER ME HVNC ORATA TVETVR.” Beyond Claudia Quinta a river winds in a tight S-curve through dark green hills. Farther back, to our left, a group of people with thin, elongated bodies dressed in blue, light brown, and orange walk in front of a tall dark blue building as they head toward a river on the right side. The building has an arched opening and a tower topped with a taupe-brown spire. To our right of Claudia Quinta, a woman wearing a rose-pink dress holds a rope around the prow of a boat at the edge of the river. Like the boat held by Claudia Quinta, it is navy blue and has the same shape. The pale lavender-purple river continues into the distance, where it meets rocky outcroppings along the horizon, which comes about halfway up the composition. A pale blue sky above is filled with wispy bands of clouds.
Neroccio de' Landi, Claudia Quinta, c. 1490/1495, tempera on poplar panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.12

Claudia Quinta

Neroccio de' Landi · c. 1490/1495 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.12

Shown from the chest up, a light-skinned, blond young woman wearing a gold and red gown and pearls looks off to our left in this vertical portrait painting. Her face and body both angle to our left, and she gazes in that direction with brown eyes under faint brows. She has smooth skin, a long, straight nose, and her closed, light pink lips curl up slightly at the corners. Long, cottony, light blond hair falls over her ears and flows down beyond her shoulders. At the back of her head, she wears a caramel-brown cap decorated with black, web-like lines and a row of pearls along the front edge. Her bodice is the same golden brown color, with the black linework in a leaf and floral pattern. The low neckline runs straight across her chest, and swaths of scarlet-red fabric wrap over her shoulders to meet in a wide V. Clusters of three tiny pearls line the squared edge of her neckline. A double-stranded pearl necklace has a red gemstone pendant that hangs at the base of her neck. A third, single strand of pearls hangs low over her chest, holding a pendant with a magenta-pink stone flanked by more pearls. A landscape stretches into the distance behind her. Dark green, grassy fields dotted with trees leads back to a winding body of water, over her shoulder to our right. Stone walls enclose at least two clusters of buildings, including several towers, far back along the banks. The light blue sky is tinged with petal pink near the horizon, over mountains painted blue in the hazy distance. An ivory-white band spans the bottom edge of the portrait, and is inscribed, “QVANTVM HOMINI FAS EST MIRA LICET ASSEQVAR ARTE. NIL AGO: MORTALIS EMVLOR ARTE DEOS.” The band is flanked by a triangle to each side; the one to our left has the letters “CP” or “OP,” and the one to our right reads “NER” with the N and E conjoined. The painting has an ornately carved, brown wooden frame. A rope design divides the border into alternating squares and rectangles. Each rectangular box has a pair of carved eagle heads flanking an orb, while a flame-like shape is in each of the smaller square boxes. The boxes and trim have slate-blue backgrounds, and gold edging.
Neroccio de' Landi, Portrait of a Lady, c. 1485, tempera on pine panel, Widener Collection, 1942.9.47

Portrait of a Lady

Neroccio de' Landi · c. 1485 · tempera on pine panel ·  Accession ID  1942.9.47

Bibliography

1906

  • Perkins, F. Mason. "Su certi quadri sconosciuti di Neroccio." Rassegna d'Arte Senese 2 (1906): 83-86.

1913

  • Dami, L. "Neroccio di Bartolomeo Landi." Rassegna d'Arte 13 (1913): 137-147, 160-170.

1954

  • Carli, Enzo. "Vecchietta e Neroccio a Siena e in 'quel di Lucca'." Critica d'Arte, N.S., 1 (1954): 336-354.

1961

  • Coor, G. Neroccio de' Landi. Princeton, 1961.

1988

  • Kanter, Laurence. "Neroccio." In Painting in Renaissance Siena, 1400-1500. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988: 328.

1993

  • Bellosi, Luciano, ed. Francesco di Giorgio e il Rinasciemento a Siena, 1450-1500. Exh. cat. Chiesa di Sant'Agostino, Siena. Milan, 1993: 318-330, 388-389, 452-454, 462-468, 526-527.

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: 530.