St. Vitus Madonna
Historical Context
The St. Vitus Madonna, dated around 1420 and attributed to the Meister der Madonna von St. Veit, now in the National Gallery in Prague, is a Bohemian devotional panel from the great tradition of Bohemian court painting that had flourished under Emperor Charles IV and his successors. The Bohemian school was one of the most important in northern Europe in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, synthesizing French, Italian, and local Bohemian elements into a distinctly refined and sophisticated style. Madonna panels from this tradition are characterized by extraordinary delicacy of modeling and color, and the St. Vitus Madonna is a fine example of the late phase of this tradition.
Technical Analysis
The master achieves the characteristic luminous quality of Bohemian Gothic painting through careful layering of tempera, with translucent flesh tones modeled in the soft rounded manner of the tradition. The gold ground is elaborately tooled. The tender relationship between Virgin and Child is conveyed through gesture and the direction of gaze.
