Full title | The Virgin and Child |
---|---|
Artist | Carlo Crivelli |
Artist dates | about 1430/5 - about 1494 |
Group | The Demidoff Altarpiece |
Date made | 1476 |
Medium and support | Tempera on lime |
Dimensions | 148.6 x 63.5 cm |
Inscription summary | Signed; Dated |
Acquisition credit | Bought, 1868 |
Inventory number | NG788.1 |
Location | Room 57 |
Art route(s) | A |
Collection | Main Collection |
The Virgin, crowned and richly dressed as Queen of Heaven, sits on a marble throne. She comes from a polyptych (a multi-panelled altarpiece) which Crivelli painted in 1476 for the high altar of the church of San Domenico, in Ascoli Piceno in the Italian Marche. A pink watered silk – a cloth of honour of the kind hung behind medieval rulers – hangs in soft folds behind her and creases across the edge of the marble shelf behind her head. In her long, tapering fingers she holds up a translucent cloth on which the Child is seated, as if revealing him to the friars seated in the church. The child himself has slumped forward on his mother’s knee in sleep, his chin resting on her hand, his tiny fingers grasping one of hers. San Domenico was only a small church, and Crivelli’s polyptych must have lit up the nave with a glittering, golden glow.
The Virgin Mary, crowned and richly dressed as Queen of Heaven, sits on a marble throne. She comes from a polyptych (a multi-panelled altarpiece) which Crivelli painted in 1476 for the high altar of the church of San Domenico, in Ascoli Piceno in the Italian Marche. A pink watered silk – a cloth of honour of the kind hung behind medieval rulers – hangs in soft folds behind her and creases across the edge of the marble pediment behind her head. Her blonde hair is covered with a white veil, and with her sad expression seems already aware of her son’s destiny to die on the Cross. In her long, tapering fingers she holds up a translucent cloth on which the Christ Child is seated, as if revealing him to the friars – who, unlike ordinary worshippers, would have be seated near enough to see the panel’s detail.
The Marche was a famous centre of textile production, and Crivelli’s masterly depiction of different fabrics in this painting must have appealed to the Ascoli friars in spite – or perhaps because – of the austerity of their own black and white garb. Luxurious outfits were clearly allowed in heaven: the Virgin wears an overdress of deep blue damask silk – blue being the colour of heaven – on top of which a pink cloth of gold cloak interlined with green damask, and trimmed with pearls, falls in heavy folds over her knees and feet. Her sleeves are slashed to reveal the fine linen of her underdress and there are pearls around the wrists. The gilded pastiglia of her crown and gold collar, and the damask tooling of the gilded ground behind her, must have sparkled in the candlelight of a medieval church, while the flat and burnished gold of her halo would have acted as a spotlight on her face.
Both her crown and the neck of her overdress are decorated with small balls intended to resemble pearls. These were once silver but are now tarnished. Pieces of red, blue and green coloured glass cut to resemble gem stones are also attached Mary’s crown. These are modern, probably replacements for original cabochon (precious stones that had been polished but not cut).
The Child has slumped forward on his mother’s knee in sleep, his chin resting on her hand, his tiny fingers grasping one of hers. Crivelli has turned up his left foot so we can see the sole and the bottom of his toes. His burnished gold halo has been tooled with a cross and an aureole – a circle of radiating lines – of rays, and decorated with imitation pearls.
Crivelli liked spatial games, playing with our knowledge that we are looking at a flat surface on which he has created an illusion of three-dimensional space. The Virgin’s red shoe with its curled-up toe peeps out from under the heavy folds of her robe, both casting shadows on the marble floor, which seems to recede dramatically. The fruit – another ‘trademark’ of Crivelli – casts shadows on the marble of the throne, the red cords of the cloth of honour seem to be attached to the frame itself, and the Virgin’s robe tumbles over the edge of the parapet, next to Crivelli’s signature and the date. These appear to have been carved into the stone. The cherubs' heads in the stone frieze along the base are seen as if from directly above and seem to project towards us, casting shadows of their own.
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The Demidoff Altarpiece
Crivelli painted two altarpieces for the small church of San Domenico, in the town of Ascoli Piceno in the Italian Marche. Their history is complex and intertwined. A large, double-tiered polyptych (a multi-panelled altarpiece) sat on the high altar, while a smaller altarpiece was in a side chapel.
In the nineteenth century parts of both altarpieces were sold to a Russian prince, Anatole Demidoff, who mounted them in a grand frame to make a three-tiered altarpiece for the chapel of his villa in Florence. The whole complex is now known as the Demidoff Altarpiece.
The National Gallery bought the Demidoff Altarpiece in 1868, and in 1961 the panels from the smaller polyptych were removed. They are now displayed separately.
Crivelli painted two altarpieces for the small church of San Domenico, in Ascoli Piceno in the Italian Marche. Their history is complex and intertwined. A large, two-tiered polyptych was displayed on the high altar, while a smaller altarpiece was in a side chapel.
The polyptych was still standing on the high altar in 1724, but was later dismantled. In the nineteenth century parts of both were sold to a Russian aristocrat, Prince Anatole Demidoff. He mounted them in a grand frame to make a three-tiered altarpiece for the chapel of his villa in Florence. The whole complex is known after him as the Demidoff Altarpiece.
The National Gallery bought the Demidoff Altarpiece in 1868. In 1961 the four saints in the upper tier – originally painted for the small altarpiece in San Domenico – were removed from the main altarpiece. They are now shown separately (Saint Jerome, Saint Michael, Saint Lucy, Saint Peter Martyr).
Exactly how the remaining nine panels were originally arranged is unclear. We know that the Virgin and Child were in the centre, with full-length saints on either side and half-length figures in the upper tier – although not necessarily in their current order. The altarpiece had a predella, now lost, and was topped by a painting of the Lamentation over the Dead Christ, now in New York.
San Domenico was the main church in Ascoli of the Dominican Order. The Dominicans, often known as the ‘Blackfriars’ in England, were one of the two great mendicant or preaching orders founded in the Middle Ages to provide educated preachers in towns and cities. Mendicant comes from the Latin word mendicare – ‘to beg’. Men who joined the mendicant orders took vows of poverty and travelled from place to place, preaching and living on what was given by their listeners. There were few Dominican houses in the Marche, as it was a mountainous, sparsely populated region, and the priory and church of San Domenico fell into decline in the fourteenth century. It was revived by the Blessed Constanzo di Meo di Servolo (d. 1481), who is shown in the altarpiece as Saint Dominic. He restored the priory and commissioned the great altarpiece, raising money from the citizens of Ascoli to pay for it.
In medieval Dominican churches the high altar was usually on a raised dais at the east end of the church. It was separated from the public west end by a tramezzo screen, known as a rood screen in England, so only the friars themselves could get close to the altarpiece. They would have gazed at it for many hours each day while sitting in the choir stalls for the performance of the liturgy, and the choice of saints closely reflects their concerns: preaching, teaching, defeating heresy and the salvation of souls. The Virgin in the central panel was the special protector of the Order. Saint Peter on her right stands for the papacy, which the Dominicans faithfully supported. Saint John the Baptist at the far left represented the idea that salvation could only be achieved by admission to the Church through baptism. On the Virgin’s right are Saint Catherine, whom the friars admired for her defence of the Christian faith against non-believers, and Saint Dominic, the founder of the Order.
In the top row we see Saint Francis, founder of the Franciscan order of preachers. Next to him is Saint Andrew, the first apostle, seen as a role model for preaching to ordinary people. Facing these two saints are Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, who like Catherine debated with unbelievers, and finally the great Dominican theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas. The saints all look quite different, ranging from fierce apostles to ecstatic friars and elegant princesses.
In all of them, Crivelli has used techniques such as gilding, punching and incising to make his paintings seem three dimensional and real. He emphasises certain objects, such as crowns and haloes, by building them up with pastiglia so they stand proud of the painted surface, and unites the panels by tooling a damask pattern, like that of a rich fabric, into the burnished gold backgrounds. These shapes and patterns must have shone and flickered in the candlelit nave of San Domenico.









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