The ''Madonna with Child'' (''Salting Madonna'') is a painting attributed on basis of style to the early Italian Renaissance master

Antonello da Messina Antonello da Messina, properly Antonello di Giovanni di Antonio, but also called Antonello degli Antoni and Anglicized as Anthony of Messina ( 1430February 1479), was an Italian painter from Messina, active during the Early Italian Renaissance. ...

, depicting the Madona holding the doll-like Child and wearing an ornate golden crown, held by angels over her head. It is housed in the

National Gallery, London The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

. The name ''Salting'', which is also applied to a Madonna by

Robert Campin Robert Campin (c. 1375 – 26 April 1444), now usually identified with the Master of Flémalle (earlier the Master of the Merode Triptych, before the discovery of three other similar panels), was the first great master of Early Netherlandish paint ...

, denotes

George Salting George Salting (15 August 183512 December 1909) was an Australian-born British art collector. He had inherited considerable wealth from his father; Salting collected paintings, Chinese porcelains, furniture, and many other categories of art and ...

, the collector who donated it to the gallery in 1910.

Painting

The ''Salting Madonna'' shows a complex series of cultural references that in the past have led scholars to classify it variously as a Flemish, Spanish or even Russian work. It is believed to be one of Antonello's earlier works, dating most likely from the 1460s, when the artist was still in

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. It portrays the Madonna adorned with a series of well-crafted and rendered details, such as the crown and the Venetian-style garments and gossamer veil. The Madonna has the attributes of

Mary, mother of Christ Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

. The crown with two angels represents her also as the

Queen of Heaven Queen of Heaven ( la, Regina Caeli) is a title given to the Virgin Mary, by Christians mainly of the Catholic Church and, to a lesser extent, in Anglicanism, Lutheranism, and Eastern Orthodoxy. The Catholic teaching on this subject is expresse ...

. The Child holds a

pomegranate The pomegranate (''Punica granatum'') is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punicoideae, that grows between tall. The pomegranate was originally described throughout the Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean re ...

in his hands, which symbolize the

Passion of Christ In Christianity, the Passion (from the Latin verb ''patior, passus sum''; "to suffer, bear, endure", from which also "patience, patient", etc.) is the short final period in the life of Jesus Christ. Depending on one's views, the "Passion" m ...

. The abstract beauty of the Madonna's face derives from the style of contemporary

Provençal Provençal may refer to: *Of Provence, a region of France * Provençal dialect, a dialect of the Occitan language, spoken in the southeast of France *''Provençal'', meaning the whole Occitan language *Franco-Provençal language, a distinct Roman ...

artists, especially

Enguerrand Quarton Enguerrand Quarton (or Charonton) ( 1410 – 1466) was a French painter and manuscript illuminator whose few surviving works are among the first masterpieces of a distinctively French style, very different from either Italian or Early Netherland ...

References

External links

* {{Antonello da Messina 1460s paintings Paintings by Antonello da Messina Collections of the National Gallery, London Paintings of the Madonna and Child Angels in art

Painting

See also

References

Further reading

External links