Madonna and Child in a Niche by Joos van Cleve

Madonna and Child in a Niche c. 1520

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painting, oil-paint

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portrait

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woman

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character portrait

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painting

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oil-paint

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portrait subject

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11_renaissance

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child

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animal portrait

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history-painting

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italian-renaissance

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miniature

Dimensions: 51.0 x 38.6 x 0.6 cm

Copyright: Public Domain

Joos van Cleve painted this Madonna and Child in a Niche on a thin wood panel sometime in the early 16th century. Oil paint transforms humble materials into something extraordinary. Pigments, ground and suspended in oil, become luminous layers with almost endless possibilities. This panel is all about sheen: the Virgin’s flawless skin, the folds of her opulent red robe, the gleam of the architecture, and the reflective surfaces on the table before her. Each of these effects required skill, labor, and careful attention. Consider the red robe: to achieve that depth of color, the artist would have used a pigment derived from the dried bodies of insects, laboriously collected, processed, and traded over long distances. The painting is a testament to the global economy that was already well underway in the Renaissance. So, although we may think of the Madonna and Child as timeless subjects, this one is inextricably bound to its moment in history.

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Comments

stadelmuseum's Profile Picture
stadelmuseum over 1 year ago

Like few other artists of his time, Joos van Cleve and his workshop provided the Antwerp art market with high-quality serially produced works. He specialized in paintings of the Virgin and Child, which were executed and assembled by himself, but also independently by workshop assistants drawing on various models approved by him. The infrared image of the painting shows the preparatory underdrawing beneath the layer of paint. The panel (initially inverted) was first used for a different composition of the Virgin and Child. Lines of dots visible on Mary’s right hand and the Infant’s robe suggest that a perforated cartoon and a sprinkling of pounce were used to transfer the original design accurately. Van Cleve’s workshop perfected systematic copying in the interest of a high volume of sales.

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