Madonna and Child with Saints
After Giovanni Bellini·c. 1490/1500
Historical Context
This Madonna and Child with Saints by a follower of Giovanni Bellini dates to around 1490-1500, when the sacra conversazione format — depicting the Virgin enthroned among saints — was the dominant form of Venetian altarpiece painting. Bellini's workshop was enormously productive, and his compositions were widely imitated throughout the Veneto, spreading his harmonious, light-filled approach to religious painting.
Technical Analysis
Originally on panel and transferred to canvas and then to wood, the painting shows the Bellinesque style of soft atmospheric light and warm, unified color. The symmetrical composition and serene expressions reflect the workshop's faithful adherence to the master's devotional formula.
Provenance
Walter Wysard [b. 1871], Pangbourne, Buckinghamshire; purchased 1921 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); sold to John R. Thompson, Lake Forest, Illinois, by 1924; (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); sold 1940 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[1] gift 1943 to NGA. [1] See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1373.
