Madonna Adoring the Christ Child by Circle or workshop of Lazzaro Bastiani

Madonna Adoring the Christ Child c. 1480s

circleorworkshopoflazzarobastiani

minneapolisinstituteofart

possibly oil pastel

oil painting

acrylic on canvas

portrait head and shoulder

underpainting

animal portrait

animal drawing portrait

facial portrait

italy

portrait art

fine art portrait

This panel painting, "Madonna Adoring the Christ Child," was created by the circle or workshop of Lazzaro Bastiani, a Venetian painter active in the late 15th century. The piece depicts the Virgin Mary in a blue robe, her hands clasped in prayer, gazing down at the Christ Child lying before her. The composition is simple yet compelling, emphasizing the intimate connection between mother and son. This work, created around the 1480s, showcases the typical elements of Venetian Renaissance art, with its emphasis on realism and expressive detail, as well as the use of rich colors and soft light. The painting is now held at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, where art lovers can admire its captivating portrayal of this profound religious scene.

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minneapolisinstituteofart about 1 year ago

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The Virgin Mary is depicted in solemn prayer, looking down at her infant son. The Christ Child prostrate position on a parapet in the foreground is a reminder of his future martyrdom. This painting copies a work by the Venetian painter Lazzaro Bastiani that is now in the Poznan National Museum, Poland, although a simpler landscape background has been substituted in the Minneapolis panel for scenes from the life of Tobias which appeared in the background of the original. There are at least three copies of Bastiani's painting known, perhaps by different hands, but all with the same background that appears here (Minneapolis Institute of Art and two works formerly in the New York collections of Paul Dray and Edgar Speyer). So exacting are the replicas, in both the details of the holy figures and setting, that it seems likely that the copyists were members of Bastiani's workshop or circle, and had access to a full-scale cartoon to replicate the master's painting. Pounce marks (or "spolveri") which were used to transfer a design from a cartoon to a painting's surface, can be detected, in fact, in the outline of the Virgin Mary's fingers and Christ Child's legs and toes. We are grateful to the scholar Nicole De Manincor for claryifying the versions and history of this picture.