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''Virgin and Child with Two Angels'' is a panel painting by 13th-century Italian artist Cimabue, in egg tempera on a poplar panel, dated to c. 1280. It has been held by the National Gallery in London since 2000.
The painting measures . It depicts the Virgin and Child seated together on a throne, accompanied by two angels with long feathered wings. The composition is based on Byzantine models, but modified for a Western European audience: the throne has become three dimensional, and the figures of the Virgin and Child are more human and less stylised than similar traditional Byzantine icons such as the
File:Cimabue Christ Mocked.jpg, Cimabue, '' Christ Mocked''
File:Cimabue - Flagellation.jpg, Cimabue, ''The Flagellation of Christ'', Frick Collection
File:Cimabue Diptych Overview Simple FR.svg, A proposed reconstruction of the ''Diptych of devotion''
''The Virgin and Child with Two Angels'', Cimabue
National Gallery
A long-lost Cimabue has emerged – and the 'first light' of painting now burns brighter than ever
Donal Cooper, ''Apollo Magazine'', 14 October 2019
Forgotten masterpiece to 'fetch £2m'
BBC News, 16 February 2000
Small picture, big price tag
Maev Kennedy, ''The Guardian'', 17 February 2000
Sotheby's negotiate sale of Cimabue masterpiece to the nation
(PDF) Sotheby's, 29 June 2000
Will Bennett, ''The Telegraph'', 30 June 2000
Carol Vogel, ''New York Times'', 30 June 2000
Cimabue panel found hanging in kitchen to be auctioned in France estimated at €4m-6m
Alex Capon, ''Antiques Trade Gazette'', 24 September 2019
13th century masterpiece found in French kitchen sells for record £20.7m
David Chazan, ''The Telegraph'', 27 October 2019 {{Cimabue Paintings by Cimabue 1280s paintings Collections of the National Gallery, London Angels in art Paintings of the Madonna and Child
''Virgin and Child with Two Angels'' is a panel painting by 13th-century Italian artist Cimabue, in egg tempera on a poplar panel, dated to c. 1280. It has been held by the National Gallery in London since 2000.
The painting measures . It depicts the Virgin and Child seated together on a throne, accompanied by two angels with long feathered wings. The composition is based on Byzantine models, but modified for a Western European audience: the throne has become three dimensional, and the figures of the Virgin and Child are more human and less stylised than similar traditional Byzantine icons such as the Hodegetria
A Hodegetria , ; russian: Одиги́трия, Odigítria ; Romanian: Hodighitria, or Virgin Hodegetria, is an iconographic depiction of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) holding the Child Jesus at her side while pointing to him as the source of salv ...
.
It was rediscovered at Benacre Hall
Benacre Hall is a Grade II listed country house and estate in Benacre, Suffolk. The current house is high Georgian, with Palladian geometric influence and figures externally roughly as it stood on its building, in 1764. It is the seat of the Goo ...
near Lowestoft in Suffolk in 2000, after the death of Sir John Gooch, 12th Baronet, as the contents of the house were being prepared for an auction sale. It may have been acquired in Florence in the early 19th century by his ancestor, Sir Edward Gooch, 6th Baronet, and survived a fire at the house in the 1920s.
It is one of three panels known from a polyptych depicting the passion of Christ. From its physical characteristics, it was the top left of four panels on the left leaf of a diptych, and it quickly became apparent from its size, style and method that it was almost identical to a panel held by the Frick Collection
The Frick Collection is an art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection (normally at the Henry Clay Frick House, currently at the 945 Madison Avenue#2021–present: Frick Madison, Frick Madison) features Old Master paintings and Europe ...
in New York since 1950, ''The Flagellation of Christ''. The discovery of this panel encouraged a change in the attribution of the Frick panel from Duccio to Cimabue. A third panel, '' Christ Mocked'', was found in France in 2019, and auctioned for 24 million euros.
The panel was put up for sale and was expected to sell for £10 million, but before it was sold, it was accepted in lieu of inheritance tax
An inheritance tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who has died, whereas an estate tax is a levy on the estate (money and property) of a person who has died.
International tax law distinguishes between an es ...
and allocated to the National Gallery. The heirs were granted a £6.5 million tax exemption, and a donation from Sir John Paul Getty Jr. allowed the gallery to pay a further £700,000. The other contents of the hall were sold in May 2000 for £8.3 million, a record for a country house sale in the UK.
References
Sources
''The Virgin and Child with Two Angels'', Cimabue
National Gallery
A long-lost Cimabue has emerged – and the 'first light' of painting now burns brighter than ever
Donal Cooper, ''Apollo Magazine'', 14 October 2019
Forgotten masterpiece to 'fetch £2m'
BBC News, 16 February 2000
Small picture, big price tag
Maev Kennedy, ''The Guardian'', 17 February 2000
Sotheby's negotiate sale of Cimabue masterpiece to the nation
(PDF) Sotheby's, 29 June 2000
Will Bennett, ''The Telegraph'', 30 June 2000
Carol Vogel, ''New York Times'', 30 June 2000
Cimabue panel found hanging in kitchen to be auctioned in France estimated at €4m-6m
Alex Capon, ''Antiques Trade Gazette'', 24 September 2019
13th century masterpiece found in French kitchen sells for record £20.7m
David Chazan, ''The Telegraph'', 27 October 2019 {{Cimabue Paintings by Cimabue 1280s paintings Collections of the National Gallery, London Angels in art Paintings of the Madonna and Child