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Bartolomeo Montagna, The Virgin and Child

Key facts
Full title The Virgin and Child
Artist Bartolomeo Montagna
Artist dates living 1459; died 1523
Date made perhaps about 1504-6
Medium and support Oil on canvas, transferred from wood
Dimensions 59 × 51 cm
Acquisition credit Bought, 1881
Inventory number NG1098
Location Not on display
Collection Main Collection
The Virgin and Child
Bartolomeo Montagna
/

The picture has been transferred from its original panel and placed onto a canvas, a process that has damaged the paint surface. Nevertheless, the composition, where the Virgin is placed behind a ledge and in front of a cloth, shows Montagna’s artistic debt to his teacher Giovanni Bellini. The sheen on the Virgin’s headdress as it drapes over her shoulder, catching the light, is also inspired by Bellini.

The Virgin is shown worshipping the Christ Child as he sleeps. Christ’s swaddling covers only half of his body and is intended to remind the viewer of a burial shroud; his pose – slumped against the marble wall, legs extended across the ledge – is supposed to recall his dead body in the tomb. The viewer is reminded that he is not an ordinary baby but the Son of God whose death, Christians believe, was for their salvation.

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More paintings by Bartolomeo Montagna

Saint Zeno, Saint John the Baptist and a Female Martyr
Saint Zeno, Saint John the Baptist and a Female Martyr
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Saint John the Baptist is shown between Saint Zeno, the fourth-century Bishop of Verona, and a female saint. Because of the finery of her clothing and her long flowing hair, she may be Saint Catherine, who was a princess from Alexandria. However, the saint is usually shown with the spiked wheel u...
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The Virgin and Child
The Virgin and Child
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We know little about Montagna’s training but it is possible that he spent some time in Giovanni Bellini’s workshop in Venice. This composition, in which the holy figures are shown in half-length often set against a landscape background and usually behind a marble ledge, was pioneered by the Venet...
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The Virgin and Child
The Virgin and Child
Probably by Bartolomeo Montagna
The Virgin and Christ Child are painted in fresco, a technique that involved painting directly onto fresh plaster. The Virgin’s mantle would originally have been a much more vivid shade of blue.This once belonged to Austen Henry Layard, archaeologist and explorer. He was a founder of the Arundel...
Not on display