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Madonna and Child Enthroned Before a Rose Hedge
(Renaissance Europe )
Sumptuously dressed and crowned as Queen of Heaven, the Madonna is seated on a throne before a hedge of roses, symbolic of her purity. She delicately wraps a veil around the Christ Child, who stands on her knee and offers the viewer a gesture of blessing. He also holds a small globe marked with a cross, indicating his role as the savior of the world. In the triangular gable (upper section) the adult Christ appears as the “Man of Sorrows,” dead yet upright in his tomb with the wounds from his crucifixion clearly visible.
The great size of this painting suggests it was originally the center of a large polyptych (multi-paneled altarpiece) and flanked by additional panels of full-length standing saints. The artist remains unidentified but the highly decorative style—with the Madonna’s elaborately patterned robe swirling around her body and the liberal use of pastiglia (a technique of building gesso on the surface to create three-dimensionality) in her crown and halo—suggests an origin from the central Italian region of the Marches in the 1470s or 1480s, around the same time as Carlo Crivelli (see Walters 37.593).
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.
William T. / Henry Walters Collection, Baltimore, prior to 1922 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Conservation
| Date | Description | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| Examination | examined for technical study | |
| Examination | examined for condition | |
| 5/25/1939 | Treatment | coated; lined; reconstructed; repaired |
| 1/2/1964 | Treatment | cleaned; coated; infrared spectroscopy; inpainted; other; varnish removed or reduced; x-ray |
Geographies
Italy, Marches (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H with modern frame: 60 1/2 x W: 30 x D: 7/8 in. (153.7 x 76.2 x 2.2 cm); Madonna and Child painted surface sight H: 40 1/2 x W: 23 1/2 in. (102.8 x 59.7 cm); Man of Sorrows painted surface sight H: 9 1/8 x W: 12 in. (23.2 x 30.5 cm); Original panel reverse H: 56 x W: 25 in. (142.2 x 63.5 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by William T. or Henry Walters, before 1922
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.
37.457