Giovanni Bellini - Madonna and Child - 28

''The Gypsy Madonna'' is a

panel painting A panel painting is a painting made on a flat panel of wood, either a single piece or a number of pieces joined together. Until canvas became the more popular support medium in the 16th century, panel painting was the normal method, when not paint ...

of the

Madonna and Child In art, a Madonna () is a representation of Mary, either alone or with her child Jesus. These images are central icons for both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The word is (archaic). The Madonna and Child type is very prevalent in ...

in oils of about 1510–11, by

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...

, now in the

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal do ...

in Vienna. It is a painting made for display in a home rather than a church. It is close to compositions by Titian's former master

Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 26 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father ...

, especially, when reversed, one of 1509 in the

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the list of largest art museums, largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation a ...

, and has been seen as a challenge to the much older master, by taking on a characteristic compositional formula of his. The style is much indebted to

Giorgione Giorgione (, , ; born Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco; 1477–78 or 1473–74 – 17 September 1510) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic qualit ...

, and it was often attributed to him in the earlier 20th century. This is especially so in the "harmonious fullness and slow gravity of form" of the figure of the Virgin, which uses a type of figure Titian did not repeat in later Madonnas. The landscape is virtually identical to the left-most section of the background of the ''

Dresden Venus Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the List ...

'', traditionally thought to have been begun by Giorgione, but with the landscape done after his death in 1510 by Titian. The right background is occupied with a

cloth of honour A baldachin, or baldaquin (from it, baldacchino), is a canopy of state typically placed over an altar or throne. It had its beginnings as a cloth canopy, but in other cases it is a sturdy, permanent architectural feature, particularly over h ...

, painted with careful attention to its folds (they were often stored folded up). These were hung behind thrones, as in very many paintings of enthroned Madonnas, and here it implies that an unoccupied throne is out of sight to the right. The Bellini in Detroit uses the same device. The composition is therefore a half-way stage between the older more formal enthroned Madonnas and newer compositions with the Virgin and Child shown informally in a landscape setting. Madonnas by Bellini and his followers had for some time been showing small glimpses of landscape to the sides of the painting, usually cut off by a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

lower down, and the formula here, using a horizontal "landscape" format, develops this.

Appreciation

The "Gypsy Madonna" is a 19th-century name for the painting, because of the Virgin's supposed "dusky complexion and her dark hair and eyes". She seems young even by the standards of Madonnas, and the hands of the Child are unusually engaged, respectively with his mother's fingers and her dress (this is a difference to the Bellini). According to

S. J. Freedberg Sydney Joseph Freedberg (November 11, 1914 – May 6, 1997) was an American art historian and curator, mainly of Italian Renaissance painting. Freedberg was born in Boston and attended the Boston Latin School. He graduated from Harvard College in ...

the effect of sensuous existence Titian makes by his command of optical device is of an extreme virtuosity. No picture before this attains a comparable sense of presences existing palpably within an atmosphere, reflecting coloured light but also absorbing it to saturation point, so that each pore of flesh or drapery makes texture.

Despite the debts to Bellini and Giorgione, the painting shows Titian, who was then around twenty-one, developing his own independent character and style.

Technical

Technical examinations show that it was originally even closer to the Bellini in Detroit, and that many changes were made in the course of painting. Unlike Bellini's usual careful

underdrawing Underdrawing is a preparatory drawing done on a painting ground before paint is applied, for example, an imprimatura or an underpainting. Underdrawing was used extensively by 15th century painters like Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden. These ...

, Titian "used as his guidelines only summary strokes made with a fairly wide brush with thin wash shading". Among several other changes, the head of the Child originally looked out at the viewer.

Provenance

Like several other important early Venetian paintings in Vienna, the work was (very likely) in the Venetian collection of

Bartolomeo della Nave Bartolomeo della Nave (? – 1636) was a Venetian merchant and art collector. Della Nave was born in Venice and acquired a large art collection, that later was spread to prominent collections. Many of the artworks in his collection are known from ...

and in 1636 sold in Venice to the

Duke of Hamilton Duke of Hamilton is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in April 1643. It is the senior dukedom in that peerage (except for the Dukedom of Rothesay held by the Sovereign's eldest son), and as such its holder is the premier peer of Sco ...

, who brought it to London. In 1659, after Hamilton's execution, it was acquired by

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (5 January 1614 – 20 November 1662), younger brother of Emperor Ferdinand III, was an Austrian soldier, administrator and patron of the arts. He held a number of military commands, with limited success, and ...

in Brussels, whose collection soon passed to the imperial collection in Vienna.KM; see

for a fuller account.

Notes

References

*Brown, David Alan (ed), ''Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting'', 2006, National Gallery of Art, Washington / Yale * Freedberg, Sydney J. ''Painting in Italy, 1500–1600'', 3rd edn. 1993, Yale, *Hale, Sheila, ''Titian, His Life'', 2012, Harper Press, *"KM"
"Zigeunermadonna"

*Jaffé, David (ed), ''Titian'', The National Gallery Company/Yale, London 2003,

Appreciation

Technical

Provenance

Notes

References

Further reading