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Source Description
This panel of the Madonna and Child was probably intended for private devotion in a domestic interior. The figures are placed before an elaborately patterned gold cloth of honor, beyond which is visible a cluster of treetops and a starry sky. A carpet embroidered with a pattern of lilies, symbolic of Mary’s purity, unfurls over the steps before her. The Christ Child holds a miniature model of the earth, alluding to his role as the redeemer of all mankind. The volumetric modeling and monumental presence of the figures indicates Andrea di Giusto’s awareness of his Florentine contemporaries Masaccio (1401-1428) and Fra Angelico (ca. 1395-1455). The figures' poses are loosely based on Fra Angelico’s famous fresco of the "Madonna of the Shadows" (ca. 1443) in the convent of San Marco in Florence. For two comparable Madonnas by Andrea di Giusto, probably also dating around 1450, see the panel now at the Museum of Sacred Art in Montespertoli (near Florence) and the triptych in the church of Sant'Alessandro in Incisa Valdarno.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
21512
label
Madonna and Child Enthroned
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
citationUrl
pageCount
2
Source metadata
id
21512
sourceUrl
contentType
drawing
stage
normalized
title
Madonna and Child Enthroned
description
This panel of the Madonna and Child was probably intended for private devotion in a domestic interior. The figures are placed before an elaborately patterned gold cloth of honor, beyond which is visible a cluster of treetops and a starry sky. A carpet embroidered with a pattern of lilies, symbolic of Mary’s purity, unfurls over the steps before her. The Christ Child holds a miniature model of the earth, alluding to his role as the redeemer of all mankind. The volumetric modeling and monumental presence of the figures indicates Andrea di Giusto’s awareness of his Florentine contemporaries Masaccio (1401-1428) and Fra Angelico (ca. 1395-1455). The figures' poses are loosely based on Fra Angelico’s famous fresco of the "Madonna of the Shadows" (ca. 1443) in the convent of San Marco in Florence. For two comparable Madonnas by Andrea di Giusto, probably also dating around 1450, see the panel now at the Museum of Sacred Art in Montespertoli (near Florence) and the triptych in the church of Sant'Alessandro in Incisa Valdarno.
provenance
Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1881 catalogue: no. 27, as Fra Angelico; 1897 catalogue: no. 97, as school of Fra Angelico]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
ca. 1450 (Renaissance)
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Painting & Drawing
paintings
imageCount
2
pageCount
2
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
78
height
39
dimensionsRaw
Painted surface H: 30 11/16 x W: 15 3/8 in. (78 x 39 cm); Panel H: 38 3/16 x W: 20 1/16 x D: 1 3/8 in. (97 x 51 x 3.5 cm)
Source extras
med
tempera and gold leaf on wood panel
creator_ids
4491
collection_ids
REN
exhibition_ids
none
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
6c5537da42d033c8
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
22e4e190b95c782f
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no