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Image for Madonna and Child with St. Nicholas of Bari and a Bishop Saint
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Madonna and Child with St. Nicholas of Bari and a Bishop Saint

Italian (Artist)
ca. 1500 (Renaissance)
tempera on wood panel
(Renaissance Europe )

Hovering on a bank of clouds over a distant landscape, the Madonna and Child are seated between two bishop saints, each wearing elaborately patterned vestments. Nicholas of Bari, at the right, is identifiable by the three gold balls at his feet. According to his legend, Nicholas anonymously donated the gold to three young girls whose father was too poor to afford their dowry. The bishop saint at the left does not carry any distinctive attributes and is therefore unidentifiable. Two cherubim, from one the highest, literally disembodied, ranks of angels surrounding God, appear in the upper corners of the painting while a third materializes from the clouds at the Madonna’s feet.

The artist who painted this large altarpiece is unknown but he seems to have been from Perugia, a bustling hill town in the central Italian region of Umbria. The elegant, linear style and the strong emphasis on pattern and ornament show similarities with the work of Pinturicchio (ca. 1452-1513), a native of Perugia and whose many pupils and followers continued to work there well into the mid-1500s.

Inscription

In the scroll held by the Christ Child: "O"

Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Bernard Berenson [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1910 (?) [mode of acquisition unknown] [through Berenson]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Conservation

Date Description Narrative
3/24/2023 Examination examined for condition
1/1/1949 Treatment inpainted; other
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Geographies

Italy, Umbria (Place of Origin)

Measurements

Painted surface H: 66 1/8 x W: 50 13/16 x D: 1 1/4 in. (168 x 129.1 x 3.2 cm)

Credit Line

Acquired by Henry Walters, 1910 (?)

Location in Museum

Not on view

Accession Number

In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.

37.644

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Hours

  • Wednesday—Sunday: 10 a.m.—5 p.m.
  • Thursday: 1–8 p.m.
  • Monday—Tuesday: Closed

Location

600 N. Charles St.
Baltimore, MD
21201

Phone

410-547-9000

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