File:The study and criticism of Italian art (1916) (14800707143).jpg

Identifier: gri_33125001581517 (find matches)
Title: The study and criticism of Italian art
Year: 1916 (1910s)
Authors: Berenson, Bernard, 1865-1959
Subjects: Art, Italian Painting, Italian
Publisher: London, G. Bell and sons, ltd.
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
which is moreconical than pyramidal. For all these reasons wemay date it soon after the Palermo Virgin. Thiswe already have put close to the Syracuse Annun-ciation of 1474, which again brings us back to 1475. Antonello may, perhaps, have painted our Ma-donna after his first contact with Venice in 1475.His genius, still undeveloped, although he wasforty-five years old, seems to have leapt thereuponto an immediate fullness of power and to an intenseactivity. Most of the masterpieces by which he hashitherto been known date from the annus mirabiliswhich followed. It is not likely that he would havebecome all that we know him to be had he nevercome North. Since first publishing this essay, a considerationhas occurred to me that may help to date Mr.Bensons Madonna, and to throw further light onits authors career. It is this. This Madonnamay possibly have been inspired by one of Man-tegnas now at Bergamo. If this suggestion werewell founded, it would follow, in all probability, that MANTEGNA
Text Appearing After Image:
MADONNA ANTONELLO DA MESSINA 89 Antonello painted her while in Venice or Lombardy,and therefore not before 1475; anc^ ft would alsofollow that Antonello was acquainted with works ofMantegna, and perhaps with the master himself. Certainly, Mr. Bensons and the Bergamo Ma-donnas have much in common, the patterns andthe action in especial having many resemblances.Yet, as there is no identity, they might conceivablybe the result of coincidence. Coincidences, however,are singularly rare, and I admit the possibility onlybecause I have no time to look into the history inVenetian art of this precise motive of the Child em-bracing His Mothers neck and throat with bothHis hands. Yet, as it was used by Fra Angelico, itis not likely to have remained unknown. By itself,therefore, it would be indecisive, but it can scarcelybe a coincidence that, at the same time, the Child isrepresented half naked, wrapped in a mantle. For myself, I cannot avoid the conviction thatAntonello had seen Mantegnas pictur

Note About Images