Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Madonna and Child Enthroned
(Renaissance Europe )
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
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
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.
Conservation
| Date | Description | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| Examination | examined for condition | |
| 9/14/1938 | Treatment | other |
Geographies
Italy, Florence (Place of Origin)
Measurements
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)
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.
37.643