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The Virgin In Prayer
(Baroque Europe )
The Virgin's simple garments and unadorned hair indicate her humility, and the halo of light radiating from her head testifies to her sanctity and purity. The regular shapes of the Virgin's features and the upturned gaze reveal Sassoferrato's study of the work of Guido Reni (1575-1642). Sassoferrato, however, uses more simplified forms than Reni, as well as a reduced color scheme. This simplicity of style was intended to convey piety. Some of the artist's renderings of the subject were meant as pendants, or companion paintings, to images of Christ as the Savior of the World ("Salvator Mundi"), following a northern European type.
For more information on this painting, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 323, pp. 450-451.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Agostini Family, Sassoferrato [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unkonwn] [1881 catalogue: no. 144; 1897 catalogue: no. 255]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Geographies
Italy, Rome (Place of Origin)
Measurements
Painted surface H: 24 5/16 x W: 17 7/8 in. (61.8 x 45.4 cm); Framed H: 32 x W: 27 x D: 1 1/2 in. (81.28 x 68.58 x 3.81 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902
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.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
37.1861