Lot 1004 | Madonna with Child

The type of Madonna dell'Umiltà, sitting on a red cushion and resting on the lawn, is an iconographic work particularly widespread in Veneto, based on the model of the canvas by Lorenzo Veneziano dated 1359 for the church of Sant'Anastasia in Verona.
The great success of this "naturalistic" interpretation of the Madonna and Child dates back to Gentile da Fabriano's stay in Venice between the first and second decade of the 15th century, during which he created the Madonna dell'Umiltà, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles (Inv. 77.PB.27).
As has now been confirmed through research, Gentile da Fabriano's work in the lagoon represented a turning point for 15th century Venetian art, as the early works of his collaborators and students Jacopo Bellini and Pisanello show. However, the Madonna dell'Umiltà presented here can be dated to the mid-15th century, as it already shows stylistic innovations of the Renaissance, which were worked out in the workshop of Francesco Squarcione in Padua. The present panel shows in particular important links with the Madonna col Bambino from the Museo Correr in Venice (Inv. 1079; CI.I., N. 114) by the anonymous painter Maestro del polittico di Arzignano. Common to both works are the round faces and the technical details of the treatment of the radially punched background. These two Madonnas must have been painted at least a decade earlier than the master's work of the same name, the polyptych in the parish church of the Visitazione a Castello (formerly the parish church of Santa Maria) in Arzignano, in the province of Vicenza, which dates from around 1457.