Andrea Mantegna, 'The Virgin and Child with Saints', about 1490-1505

The Virgin and Child with Saints

Andrea Mantegna

Room 14

About the work

Overview

The Christ Child stands on the Virgin Mary’s lap, making a gesture of blessing. She is seated under a red canopy, between John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene, who looks up towards heaven.

Mary Magdalene raises up a small pot, a reminder of the spices she used to anoint Christ’s body after his death. The Virgin’s solemn expression as she rests her head against that of her child is one of maternal tenderness, but also an indication of her grief to come. Along with John the Baptist’s cross and Mary Magdalene’s ointment, it is a reminder of the fate of the infant on her lap: his crucifixion and death.

We do not know which church this altarpiece was made for. It is painted on canvas, so Mantegna could have painted it in his studio in Mantua, rolled it up and sent it to wherever it was required.

In-depth

The Christ Child stands on the Virgin Mary’s lap, making a gesture of blessing. She is seated under a red canopy, between John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene. An unfurling scroll is inscribed with the words John spoke about Christ just before he baptised him: ‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1: 29).

Mantegna has painted the figures as though they stand before us. John the Baptist’s skin is tanned, he has stubble around his jaw and his bones show through his skin – he is emaciated after his time in the wilderness prophesying the coming of Christ. He wears a simple tunic made from an animal hide, its rugged edge curling over around the neck and arms. Mary Magdalene looks up towards heaven and raises up a small pot, a reminder of the spices that she anointed Christ’s body with after his death. Her full, fair curls and the way the light hits her neck and chest make her look like a sculpted marble statue of an ancient goddess.

Mantegna has adopted the contrapposto pose of classical sculpture, first revived in sculpture by Donatello (whose work Mantegna encountered in Padua). This asymmetrical pose, where the body curves gently as though the figure is swaying, makes them appear light and graceful. It is most obvious in the naked figure of Christ. The figures‘ draperies are a striking focus point – all three are wrapped in volumes of cloth which reveal the shape of their bodies. The knees and thighs of the Virgin and Mary Magdalene are revealed and concealed by the fabric, in the same way as ancient sculptures of goddesses. Mary Magdalene’s dress, with its multiple folds and pleats, especially recalls the arrangement of draperies of ancient statues. In this way the figures are imbued with the dignity and status of the art of antiquity, as well as appealing to the contemporary taste for these kinds of objects. The network of jagged lines created by these folds adds pattern and detail to the central part of the picture; the bright colours, the apples in the trees, and the plants and grasses springing from the rocky soil add vibrancy to the scene.

These appealing details contrast with the sombre anchor of the scene, the Virgin Mary. Her solemn expression as she rests her head against that of her child is one of maternal tenderness, but also an indication of her grief to come. Along with John the Baptist’s cross and Mary Magdalene’s ointment, it is a reminder of the fate of her son: his crucifixion and death.

This type of altarpiece, where the holy figures are shown together, occupying the same imaginary space, is known as a sacra conversazione . At the time, this format was relatively new in Venice, where it had been pioneered by Bartolomeo Vivarini and Marco Zoppo. It was developed to its fullest potential by Giovanni Bellini. We don’t know which church this altarpiece was made for, but as it is painted on canvas rather than wooden panel Mantegna could have produced it in his studio in Mantua, rolled it up and sent it to wherever it was required. It is first documented in Milan.

The whole picture is contained within a black border, speckled with red – perhaps in imitation of a marble frame or window – which seems to have been cut down on three sides. Mantegna signed the inside of John’s scroll: ‘Andreas Mantinia C.P.F.’ The ‘F’ is for fecit, Latin for ‘made this’; the ‘C.P.’ may stand for ‘Comes Palatinus’, Count of the Palatine, a title given to Mantegna in 1469.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Virgin and Child with the Magdalen and Saint John the Baptist
Artist: Andrea Mantegna
Artist dates: about 1431 - 1506
Date made: about 1490-1505
Medium and support: egg tempera on canvas
Dimensions: 139.1 × 116.8 cm
Inscription summary: Signed; Inscribed
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1855
Inventory number: NG274
Location: Room 14
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 15th-century Italian Frame

Provenance

Said to have been owned by Cardinal Cesare Monti, Archbishop of Milan, who died in 1650; the original statement to this effect seems due to a misconception, but there is also a tradition, first recorded in 1859, that it was placed in the private chapel of Palazzo Monti in 1610. However that may be, the Palazzo Monti at Milan became in due course the Palazzo Andreani, where the picture came to light between 1787 and 1796. Engraved in the Mario Andreani Collection in 1813. It passed (by inheritance ?) to the Mellerio family, then to Conte Somaglia at Palazzo Mellerio, Milan. The last named sold it to Baslini in 1855, who sold it to Roverselli, from whom purchased, 1855.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2011

Devotion by Design: Italian Altarpieces before 1500

The National Gallery (London)

6 July 2011 - 2 October 2011
2017

Loan to the Museo Civico (Viterbo)

Museo Civico (Viterbo)

27 February 2017 - 7 July 2017
2018

Mantegna and Bellini

The National Gallery (London)

1 October 2018 - 27 January 2019
2018

Mantegna and Bellini: Masters of the Renaissance

Gemäldegalerie (Berlin)

1 March 2019 - 30 June 2019

Bibliography

1910

F. Knapp, Andrea Mantegna: Des Meisters Gemälde und Kupferstiche, Stuttgart 1910
1951

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
1978

C. Gould, The Draped Figure, Themes and Painters in the National Gallery 2, 2nd edn, London 1978
1986

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
1986

R. Lightbown, Mantegna: With a Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings and Prints, Oxford 1986
1988

J. Burckhardt, The Altarpiece in Renaissance Italy, ed. P. Humfrey, Oxford 1988
1991

J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
1995

J. Brown, Kings and Connoisseurs: Collecting Art in Seventeenth-Century Europe, New Haven 1995
1998

N. Penny, 'The Study and Imitation of Old Picture-Frames', The Burlington Magazine, CXL/1143, 1998, pp. 375-82
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2002

A. Hollander, Fabric of Vision: Dress and Drapery in Painting (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 19 June - 8 September 2002), London 2002
2004

A. De Nicolò Salmazo, Andrea Mantegna, Geneva 2004
2005

C. Higgitt and R. White, 'Analyses of Paint Media: New Studies of Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XXVI, 2005, pp. 88-104

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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You've viewed 6 of 15 works

Andrea Mantegna, 'The Virgin and Child with Saints', about 1490-1505

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Exhibition history

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Andrea Mantegna