Full title | The Virgin and Child enthroned with Angels |
---|---|
Artist | Lorenzo Costa |
Artist dates | 1460 - 1535 |
Group | The High Altarpiece from San Pietro in Vincoli, Faenza |
Date made | 1505 |
Medium and support | Oil on canvas, transferred from wood |
Dimensions | 167.6 x 73 cm |
Inscription summary | Signed; Dated and inscribed |
Acquisition credit | Bought, 1859 |
Inventory number | NG629.1 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
This painting of the Virgin and Child enthroned was once the central element of a large multi-panelled altarpiece made for the oratory of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Faenza. In it, heaven and earth mingle. The Virgin is depicted as Queen of Heaven, although she has no crown: behind her is a green silk cloth of honour, such as was hung behind medieval and Renaissance royalty.
The front edge of the cloth hangs down over the lintel of an elegant but implausible stone structure with a doorway at its centre. On either side of the doorway, oval reliefs show the presentation of the Virgin in the Temple and the marriage of the Virgin; through it, we can see an imaginary landscape.
A fascination with complex stepped architecture had long been a feature of Ferrarese painting, and Costa in 1497 had devised a similar, though even more elaborate, architectural structure for the Ghedini chapel (S. Giovanni in Monte, Bologna).
The Virgin Mary sits on an elaborate throne, holding the infant Christ on her knee. She is dressed in blue – the colour of heaven – and red, her robe puddling on the stone ledge beneath her feet. She looks lovingly down at the naked Christ Child, who raises his hand in blessing and in turn looks downwards at the viewer. Angels kneel in adoration on either side, while two more on the lower level make heavenly music with pipes and a viol.
This painting of the Virgin and Child enthroned was once the central element of a large polyptych possibly made for the oratory of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Faenza (other panels from the altarpiece are also in the National Gallery’s collection). In it, heaven and earth mingle. The Virgin is shown as Queen of Heaven, although she has no crown: behind her is a green silk cloth of honour, such as was hung behind medieval and Renaissance royalty. It forms a canopy over her head, and has been folded so that its creases make a pattern of squares. The cloth evidently runs under the throne – its front edge hangs down over the lintel of an elegant but implausible stone structure with a doorway at its centre and stone steps which extend into the altarpeice’s side panels. At the base, the structure projects forwards to make a seat for the angelic musicians.
An earthly if imaginary landscape is visible through the door – a rolling plain framed by tall slender trees and populated by a number of exotically dressed figures. A man blows a trumpet, a soldier holds a long spear and two figures stand talking next to a man on a horse. On the shore a boat is moored; in the distance a small island with blue towers and spires rises from the water.
A fascination with complex stepped architecture had long been a feature of Ferrarese painting, as can be seen in Cosimo Tura’s The Virgin and Child Enthroned or Francesco del Cossa’s Saint Vincent Ferrer. Following the example of his teacher, Ercole de' Roberti, Costa had in 1497 devised a similar, though even more elaborate, architectural structure for the Ghedini chapel (S. Giovanni in Monte, Bologna), with a landscape seen through a doorway beneath the Virgin’s throne and fictive reliefs showing biblical and mythological scenes. Here he chose a simpler setting, with two oval reliefs on either side of the doorway. These show the presentation of the Virgin in the Temple and the marriage of the Virgin, the two chief events in her life prior to the Annunciation. Perhaps the Annunciation was represented in some way on the original frame.
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The Virgin and Child enthroned with Angels
The High Altarpiece from San Pietro in Vincoli, Faenza
These five paintings were once part of a large multi-panel altarpiece, or polyptych, made for the high altar of the Oratory of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Faenza. It was originally topped by a horizontal panel, now lost, showing the dead Christ supported by angels.
Although the altarpiece has been dismembered and its original frame – an important part of the ensemble – is lost, we can tell how it would have been arranged by comparison with existing polyptychs and designs for them, and from the paintings themselves. The Virgin and Child evidently appeared in an arched niche: the dark curved areas to either side of the Virgin’s head would have been covered by the frame. They were flanked by Saints Peter and Philip in the lower register, with Saints John the Evangelist and John the Baptist above.
Lorenzo Costa has signed and dated the central panel in Latin, making it look like an inscription at the top of the door frame: LAURENTIUS COSTA F[ECIT] 1505.
These five paintings – The Virgin and Child, Saint Peter, Saint Philip, Saint John the Evangelist and Saint John the Baptist – were once part of a large polyptych made for the high altar of the oratory of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Faenza. It was originally topped by a horizontal panel, now lost, showing the dead Christ supported by angels. In the nineteenth century, the paintings were transferred to canvas and were probably reduced in size at the same time.
Although the altarpiece has been dismembered and its original frame – an important part of the ensemble – is lost, we can tell how it would have been arranged by comparison with existing polyptychs and designs for them, and from the paintings themselves. The Virgin and Child evidently appeared in an arched niche: the dark curved areas to either side of the Virgin’s head would have been covered by the frame. They were flanked by Saints Peter and Philip in the lower register, with Saints John the Evangelist and John the Baptist above. Lorenzo Costa has signed and dated the central panel in Latin, making it look like an inscription at the top of the door frame: LAURENTIUS COSTA F[ECIT] 1505.
Costa was one of the leading figures of the Ferrarese school. He trained with Ercole de‘ Roberti, and perhaps went with him to Bologna in the early 1480s. It seems unlikely that it was Costa who decided on the polyptych format – since the early 1490s, all his altarpieces had shown figures in a single panel rather than in separate ones. Even here the elements are linked by the elaborate, if improbable, plinth on which the Virgin’s throne sits. It spills over into the side panels: you can see the steps leading up to it in the panels of Saints Peter and Philip. The landscape behind the Virgin would also have appeared to run behind these two saints, creating an illusion of continuous space, even though the figures were divided by the frame. Perhaps the patron requested a polyptych, maybe with a specific model in mind. Indeed the frame may have been commissioned in advance, as was the case with the High Altarpiece, S. Alessandro, Brescia.
Unfortunately we know nothing about the commissioning of this altarpiece. The oratory of S. Pietro belonged to the confraternity of S. Maria delle Grazie, which had been founded in around 1420 under the patronage of the Dominicans of S. Andrea in Vineis, Faenza. It promoted the cult of an image of the Virgin that recorded her miraculous appearance in the city in 1412, which was thought to have brought an end to the plague in the city. The oratory stood on the same square as S. Andrea, in the area occupied today by Via Giuseppe Ugonia. It was abandoned in the eighteenth century and a new oratory built behind the cathedral. We know very little about the decoration of the old oratory: the sixteenth-century documentation of the confraternity is lost, and the late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century documents tell us nothing relevant.
The year 1505 was an especially busy one for Costa: he painted this altarpiece, a Marriage of the Virgin for the church of SS. Annunziata (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna) and was also working on the Allegory of the Court of Isabella d’Este (Louvre, Paris). Elements of the Bolognese altarpiece are very similar to our painting, especially the facial type of the Virgin and the soft landscape with its delicate hues, gentle hills and fantastic distant buildings.





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