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Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist

Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist

Defendente Ferrari

Defendente Ferrari was active primarily in the northwest region of Italy called the Piedmont in the first half of the sixteenth century. He executed many commissions for ecclesiastical patrons whose artistic tastes remained conservative compared to the artistic innovations taking place in Florence and Rome at this time. Ferrari’s style exhibits the refined qualities of late Gothic art in the attention to detail, the use of jewel-like colors, and the angularity in the rendering of the draperies. This monumental devotional painting, or altarpiece, showing the enthroned Virgin and Child flanked by two saints and music-making angels is called a sacra conversazione (holy conversation). The figures are shown as if they were inside a church, which is represented as an extension of the actual space this painting would have occupied over the altar of a chapel. From what we know about Defendente’s other works, we think this painting may have been the central panel of a two-tiered multiple panel altarpiece, or polyptych.
Artist
Defendente Ferrari
(active Italian, ca. 1500 - 1535)
Title
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist
Date
ca. 1525
Medium
Oil on wood panel
Dimensions
91 x 60 in. Overall
Credit
Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Accession No.
61.4.7
Classification
Paintings
Geography
Italy

Related

Unknown date, acquired by Henry Pelham Archibald Douglas Pelham-Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, 7th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyme (1864-1928); 4 June 1937, sold following his death by Christie’s auction house (London, England) (lot. 29, attributed to Vicenzo Foppa); 4 June 1937, purchased from this sale by Giuseppe Bellesi (London, England). 16 September 1938, sold by Alessandro Contini- Bonacossi (Rome and Florence, Italy) to Samuel H. Kress (New York, NY); September 1961, gifted by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation (New York, NY) to the University of Wisconsin Madison; 1967, transferred to Elvehjem Art Center [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Baumann, Barry. "The Treatment of Defendente Ferrari's 'Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints and Angels.' " Bulletin/Annual Report 1987-1988. Elvehjem Museum of Art (1990): 4-11. pp. 4-11
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Handbook of the Collection." Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Madison, 1990. no. 25
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Artscene." Vol. 2, No. 3, May/June 1986. p. 1
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Artscene." Vol. 3, No. 4, July/August 1987. p. 1
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Elvehjem Museum of Art Bulletin/Annual Report 1987-1988." Elvehjem Museum of Art, 1989 p. 4
  • National Gallery of Art Library. “Image Collections.” NGA Library - Image Collections. National Gallery of Art Library. Accessed September 24, 2020. https://library.nga.gov/permalink/01NGA_INST/1p5jkvq/alma99413093804896
  • William Suida. “Contributo alla conoscenza delle pitture piemontesi in America.” Bollettino della Società Piemontese di Archeologia e di Belle Arti, vol. VIII–XI (1954–1957): 82-93. p. 88, fig. 82

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