Madonna of Peace (Pinturicchio)

Last updated
Madonna of Peace
Pinturicchio, madonna della pace, 1490 circa. 143x70 cm, sanseverino marche, pinacoteca civica.jpg
Artist Pinturicchio
Yearc. 1490
Mediumoil on panel
Dimensions143 cm× 70 cm(56 in× 28 in)
Location Pinacoteca Civica Padre Pietro Tacchi Venturi, San Severino Marche

Madonna of Peace is an oil on panel painting by Pinturicchio, now in the Pinacoteca Civica Padre Pietro Tacchi Venturi in San Severino Marche. It is one of the few authentically autographed works from the artist's early mature period. [1]

Contents

History

Liberato Bartelli gave this artwork to the Duomo in San Severino Marche. He was a native of the city and was then serving as protonotary apostolic and canon of Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome. At the end of 1488, he was made prior of the church in his home town of San Severino Marche. He seems to have commissioned the work to commemorate this event. Pinturicchio was then among a new generation of artists working in Rome and probably delivered the work around 1490.

Pinturicchio used the painting's figure of the Madonna as a model for later autograph works such as Madonna with the Christ Child Reading (North Carolina Museum of Art) and Madonna with the Christ Child Writing (Philadelphia Museum of Art), both datable to between 1494 and 1498. Other Madonnas derived from it (such as that in the Kress collection (now part of the National Gallery of Art in Washington) are studio works.

Description and style

Detail of the painting Pinturicchio, madonna della pace, 1490 circa. 143x70 cm, sanseverino marche, pinacoteca civica, dettaglio.jpg
Detail of the painting

The painting, nearly unanimously praised by critics, shows the Madonna seated with the Baby Jesus in her lap. In his left hand, he holds a globus cruciger , a cross-bearing orb that symbolizes his divine power over the earth. With his right hand, he gives benediction to the kneeling client below, who is represented in profile with detailed attention to its facial features (the brow furrows, veins, and the consistency of the loose hair). That detail reveals Pinturicchio's study of Flemish painting.

The Baby Jesus is not semi-nude, as he is in Umbrian and Tuscan depictions contemporary with this painting. Instead, he has the clothing of a "little redeemer", with a rich dalmatic and a pallium that come perhaps from the influence of Byzantine mosaics in Rome.

To the sides, angels capture and direct the viewer's gaze. One looks at the viewer directly (like the so-called role of the "reveler", taken from sacred representations of Renaissance theater). The other angel reclines its head against Jesus' gesture of benediction. Their faces are an ideal of rarefied beauty, with studied inclination of head and gesture.

The drapery is meticulously dedicate and rich with decorations that follow the tip of the brush, like the embroidered clothing of Jesus with its flashes of pearls set on the sleeves.

The background has the look of Umbrian landscape paintings, with hills punctuated by human presence that, among the slender, leafy trees, fades into the distance, softened by haze. At the left, there is a natural Roccoco arch, a typical fantastical invention of the painter, that is reminiscent of the School of Ferrara. Under it, some knights and infantrymen pass, which is perhaps an allusion to the army of Herod and the Massacre of the Innocents.

The figures in the first plan are monumental, yet fluid, (perhaps the influence of Florentine painting and Antoniazzo Romano) and resplendent in bright colors and the profusion of gold finery. The halos, for example, are composed of punched gold that create a vibrant, dusty, and diffuse light, that lights up the painting as in elaborate gold filigree. Golden highlights are visible in the hair or clothes of people or the countryside, and above all the leafy foliage.

The lunette shows Jesus giving an "eternal benediction" within a mandorla of little angels, following a pattern of Perugino.

Related Research Articles

Madonna (art) Artistic representation of Mary, either alone or with her child Jesus

In art, a Madonna is a representation of Mary, either alone or with her child Jesus. These images are central icons for both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The word is from Italian ma donna 'my lady' (archaic). The Madonna and Child type is very prevalent in Christian iconography, divided into many traditional subtypes especially in Eastern Orthodox iconography, often known after the location of a notable icon of the type, such as the Theotokos of Vladimir, Agiosoritissa, Blachernitissa, etc., or descriptive of the depicted posture, as in Hodegetria, Eleusa, etc.

Duccio 13th and 14th-century Italian painter

Duccio di Buoninsegna was an Italian painter active in Siena, Tuscany, in the late 13th and early 14th century. He was hired throughout his life to complete many important works in government and religious buildings around Italy. Duccio is considered one of the greatest Italian painters of the Middle Ages, and is credited with creating the painting styles of Trecento and the Sienese school. He also contributed significantly to the Sienese Gothic style.

Luca Signorelli Italian Renaissance painter

Luca Signorelli was an Italian Renaissance painter who was noted in particular for his ability as a draftsman and his use of foreshortening. His massive frescoes of the Last Judgment (1499–1503) in Orvieto Cathedral are considered his masterpiece.

Pinturicchio Italian painter

Pinturicchio, or Pintoricchio, also known as Benetto di Biagio or Sordicchio, was an Italian painter during the Renaissance. He acquired his nickname because of his small stature and he used it to sign some of his artworks that were created during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

<i>Garvagh Madonna</i> Painting by Raphael

The Garvagh Madonna is an oil painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael, dating to c. 1509–1510. It depicts the Virgin, the Christ Child and the infant John the Baptist, and is one of many paintings by Raphael with this trio. It is from early in the artist's third, or Roman period, in which distinctive changes are seen from his Umbrian or Florentine period in style and use of colour, with the introduction of more natural subjects and settings.

Cristoforo Roncalli Italian painter

Cristoforo Roncalli was an Italian mannerist painter. He was one of the three painters known as Pomarancio or Il Pomarancio.

Themes in Italian Renaissance painting

This article about the development of themes in Italian Renaissance painting is an extension to the article Italian Renaissance painting, for which it provides additional pictures with commentary. The works encompassed are from Giotto in the early 14th century to Michelangelo's Last Judgement of the 1530s.

Bartolomeo Caporali Italian painter

Bartolomeo Caporali was an Italian painter and miniaturist in Perugia, Umbria during the early Renaissance period. His style was influenced by Umbrian artists Gozzoli and Boccati, two of his first mentors, and continued to evolve as younger Umbrian artists came onto the scene, such as Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, Perugino and Pinturicchio. Although primarily a painter, he is also known for executing missals, restoration work, gilding, armorials, banners and celebratory decorations, which speaks to his decorative, detail-oriented artistic style. His most famous works include Madonna and Saints (1487) for the church of Santa Maria Maddalena at Castiglione del Lago, The Virgin and Child Between Two Praying Angels, and his Adoration of the Shepherds.

<i>Baptism of Christ</i> (Perugino, Rome) Fresco by Pietro Perugino in the Sistine Chapel

The Baptism of Christ is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance painter Pietro Perugino and his workshop, executed around 1482 and located in the Sistine Chapel, Rome.

<i>Madonna and Child with a Bishop</i>

The Madonna and Child with a Bishop is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Pinturicchio, painted around 1495 and housed in the Museu de Belles Arts of Valencia, Spain.

<i>Crucifixion between Sts. Jerome and Christopher</i>

The Crucifixion between Sts. Jerome and Christopher is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Pinturicchio, painted around 1475 and housed in the Borghese Gallery of Rome, Italy.

Baglioni Chapel

The Baglioni Chapel is a chapel in the Collegiate church of Santa Maria Maggiore, Spello, central Italy. It is known for its Renaissance frescoes executed by Pinturicchio from c. 1500 to 1501.

<i>Recanati Annunciation</i>

The Recanati Annunciation is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Lorenzo Lotto, executed around 1534 and housed in the Civic Museum of Villa Colloredo Mels, Recanati, Italy.

Della Rovere Chapel (Santa Maria del Popolo)

The Della Rovere or Saint Jerome Chapel, otherwise the Chapel of the Nativity is the first side chapel in the south aisle of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. It was dedicated to the Virgin and Saint Jerome and decorated with the paintings of Pinturicchio and his pupils. It is one of the best preserved monuments of quattrocento art in Rome.

Basso della Rovere Chapel (Santa Maria del Popolo)

The Basso Della Rovere or Saint Augustine Chapel is located in the south aisle of the basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. This is the third side chapel from the counterfaçade and was dedicated to St. Augustine. The cycle of beautiful quattrocento frescoes was executed by Pinturicchio and his workshop.

Bernardino Di Mariotto dello Stagno was an Italian painter of the Renaissance period.

<i>Madonna della Vallicella</i> Painting by Peter Paul Rubens

The Madonna della Vallicella is an oil-on-slate painting produced between 1606 and 1608 by Peter Paul Rubens. It is his second confirmed commission in Rome, after his now-lost painting cycle for Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.

Pinacoteca Civica Padre Pietro Tacchi Venturi

The Pinacoteca Civica Padre Pietro Tacchi Venturi is the civic art gallery of the town of San Severino Marche, region of Marche, Italy. Located at Via Salimbeni 39, it mainly displays sacred paintings from prior centuries.

<i>Santa Maria dei Fossi Altarpiece</i>

The Santa Maria dei Fossi Altarpiece is a 1496-1498 painting by Pinturicchio, now in the Galleria nazionale dell'Umbria in Perugia. Unusually for an altarpiece, it is painted on canvas stretched over wooden panels.

<i>Pietà</i> (Annibale Carracci) Painting by Annibale Carracci in the National Museum of Capodimonte, Naples

Pietà is a c. 1600 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carracci, the earliest surviving work by him on the subject, which was commissioned by Odoardo Farnese. It moved from Rome to Parma to Naples as part of the Farnese collection and is now in the National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples. It is one of many 16th century Bolognese paintings dedicated to the theme of the Pietà, and it is counted among Carracci's masterpieces.

References

  1. (in Italian) Cristina Acidini, 'Pintoricchio', in Pittori del Rinascimento, Scala, Firenze 2004. ISBN   88-8117-099-X