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The Virgin and Child (Northbrook Madonna)
The Virgin and Child (Northbrook Madonna)
Image © Worcester Art Museum, all rights reserved.

The Virgin and Child (Northbrook Madonna)

Artist (Italian, about 1480–1553)
Artist (Italian, 1483–1520)
Dateabout 1505
Mediumoil on panel
Dimensionsimage (painted area): 51.4 x 36.2 cm (20 1/4 x 14 1/4 in.)
panel: 58 x 42.7 cm (22 13/16 x 16 13/16 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineTheodore T. and Mary G. Ellis Collection
Terms
Object number1940.39
DescriptionThree-quarter length portrait of the seated Virgin, the nude Child stands on her lap, the back of his head brushes her right cheek, his left arm stretches across her chest, he turns to look down and left. The Virgin gazes down and right. Her right hand on the child’s right leg, her left hand touches his right ankle. A transparent veil touches her forehead, red dress drawn in under the breast, a blue cape covers her lap.
Label TextThe artist Raphael depended heavily on a network of collaborators throughout his career, ranging from studio assistants to fellow artists he brought in to help with specific projects. His work was immensely popular, and his drawings—as well as copies of his paintings—were in wide circulation throughout central Italy in the early 1500s. In 2015, the museum began studying this work in depth, and we are now much closer to an attribution. While the design is based on a work by Raphael, the delicate, accomplished style of painting and the psychologically remote expression of Mary recalls the work of Domenico Alfani, an artist based in Umbria, a region east of Florence where Raphael periodically travelled. Rather than a follower of Raphael, Alfani is better understood as a peer of Raphael, part of a network of artists exchanging drawings and ideas in Central Italy in the early 1500s.ProvenanceMethuen Collection, London, then in Corsham, Wiltshire, by 1760; sold to Sir Thomas Baring (1772–1848), Stratton, 1844; bequeathed to his son, Thomas Baring (1799–1873); bequeathed to his nephew, Thomas George Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook (1826–1904); bequeathed to Francis George Baring, 2nd Earl of Northbrook (1850–1929); sold to R. Langton Douglas, by 1927; sold to Theodore T. Ellis (1868–1934), Worcester, MA, 1927; bequeathed to his wife, Mary G. Ellis (d. 1940); bequeathed to the Worcester Art Museum as part of the Theodore T. and Mary G. Ellis Collection, 1940.
On View
On view
Rebecca Orne
Joseph Badger
1757
Mary Carpenter
Ralph Earl
1779
Faith Savage, Mrs. Cornelius Waldo
Joseph Badger
about 1750
Dormition of the Virgin
Byzantine
about 1000
Abigail and Lucretia Callahan
Ralph Earl
about 1785
Lois Orne
Joseph Badger
1757
Electa Barrell, Mrs. Samuel Wilder
Samuel Lovett Waldo
about 1830
Reference Image - Not for Reproduction
Chinese
960–1279, late Song Dynasty (1200s–1300s)