Updated 09 April 2025
On Display Special Exhibition Wing
On Display
Special Exhibition Wing
The Madonna and Child
| Date | c. 1516 |
|---|---|
| Materials and Techniques | Oil on poplar |
| Size（cm） | 89 x 66.6 |
| Inscriptions | Inscribed on the verso in a seventeenth-century hand: 14 |
| Category | Paintings |
| Collection Number | P.2014-0001 |
Andrea del Sarto, a leading figure of the High Renaissance, exerted a tremendous influence on Florentine art throughout the sixteenth century. In creating this intimate representation of the Virgin and Child, a painting of his mature period, Andrea is thought to have used his future wife as model. The head of the Infant Christ is also based on a living model, although the sinewy expression of the body follows the sculptural style of the time. A painting with the same composition is held in Ottawa, Canada; presumably it was executed around the same time employing the same cartoon as used for the present work. (Source: Gallery label, July 2016)
Provenance
Clara Winthrop, Boston; bequeathed to All Saints Episcopal church, West Newbury, Mass., in the 1930s; sold Sotheby's, New York, 28 January 2000, lot 12; Matthiesen Fine Art Ltd., London, Private Collection, Austria; Christie's, London, 5 July 2011 (not sold); purchased by NMWA, 2014
Exhibition History
- 2002
- Titian to Tiepolo: Three Centuries of Italian Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 28 March 2002 - 16 June 2002, Melbourne Museum, Melbourne, 7 July-5 October, cat. no. 5, pp. 60-61, illus.
Bibliography
- 2000
- Sotherby's New York,eds. Old Masters 2000. Friday 28 January 2000, pp. 38-43, lot 12.
- 2001
- Brown, B. Andrea Del Sarto Rediscovered, London, 2001
- 2005
- Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and the Renaissance in Florence (exh. cat.). Johnston, C; Franklin, D. eds. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 2005, pp. 142-144, under no. 37.
- 2011
- Christie's London eds. Old Master & British Paintings Including a Drawing by Michelangelo, Evening Sale. Tuesday 5 July 2011, pp. 214-219, lot 62.
- 2016
- Annual Bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. No. 49 (Apr. 2014-Mar. 2015), 2016, Watanabe, Shinsuke. New Acquisitions. pp. 9-12, List of New Acquisitions. p. 26, repr.