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Wooden panel painted with woman and baby seated on wooden throne with colorful patterns.

Pentagonal panel painted with light-skinned Virgin Mary in blue and brown robes sitting on a brown wooden throne with a variety of colorful patterned details, including intersecting lines on the seat back, red and white circular designs on the seat cushion, and colorful shapes along the throne’s sides. Mary’s dark eyes look straight at us, and she wears an elaborate headpiece and halo on her head. She holds a seated baby Jesus, who in turn holds a red book, in her arms.

Gallery Text

The Virgin gesturing to Christ, who gives a sign of blessing, is a variation of a Byzantine type of Madonna known as Hodegetria or “She who points the Way.” Though paintings like this are thought to be based on earlier models, this one shows signs of the artist’s inclinations: lines are incised into its surface, outlining the figures and showing adjustments that were made. Christ’s body, for example, is painted slightly below the incised line, while the sides of the Virgin’s cloak are far narrower than outlined. The painting also shows the artist’s technique of layering tempera to indicate form and mass — white is placed over the flesh color on the Virgin’s hand to create a highlight, while a darker coloris painted around her chin to suggest shadow. Figures like this one of the Madonna painted on panel were often carried in religious processions and venerated as protection against war or plague.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1969.151
People
Master of Camerino, Italian (active 1270-1300)
Title
The Virgin and Child Enthroned
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1270
Culture
Italian, Marchigian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/227901

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2440, Medieval Art
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Tempera and silver on panel, transferred to new support
Dimensions
108.6 x 47.6 cm (42 3/4 x 18 3/4 in.)
frame: 112.5 x 50 x 5.5 cm (44 5/16 x 19 11/16 x 2 3/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Stroganoff Collection, Rome; [Durlacher, New York, (? - December 1923)] sold; to John Nicholas Brown, Providence, December 17, 1923, loaned; to Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, loaned; to Fogg Art Museum, 1926; John Nicholas Brown, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1969.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of John Nicholas Brown
Accession Year
1969
Object Number
1969.151
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Raimond Van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, M. Nijhoff Publishers (The Hague, 1923-1938), vol. 5, p. 436, fig. 257
  • Edward B. Garrison, Addenda ad indicem II, Bollettino d'Arte (Rome, October - December 1951), vol. 36, pp. 293-304, pp. 296-297, repr. p. 296 as fig. 9
  • Andrea Kirsh, "Worlds Below: An Investigation of Infrared Reflectography" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, April 1973), Unpublished, pp. 1-25 passim
  • Everett Fahy, "Italian Painting Before 1500", Apollo (May 1978), vol. 107, no. 195, pp. 377-388, p. 378, 380, repr. p. 378 as fig. 2
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 157, p. 139, repr.
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990)
  • Elizabeth Bradford Smith, Medieval Art in America: Patterns of Collecting 1800-1940, exh. cat., Palmer Museum of Art (University Park, PA, 1996), p. 178
  • Fabiola Cogliandro, Vicende collezionistiche dei dipinti italiani dal XIII al XVI secolo della Collezione d'arte di Grigorij Sergeevič Stroganoff, Figure, Università di Bologna (Bologna, 2013), pp. 73-85, pp. 75-76, repr. p. 76
  • A. Cassandra Albinson, ed., Madame de Pompadour: Painted Pink, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (Cambridge, 2022), repr. as fig. 9 on p. 41

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 2440 Medieval, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu