Bernardino Bergognone, 'The Virgin and Child with Two Angels', 1490-5
About the work
Overview
A serene young mother balances a toddler on her lap, tenderly supporting him with one hand and holding an open book in the other. This is no ordinary mother – she sits on an elaborate throne and is serenaded by angelic musicians, and both mother and child have gilded haloes. This is the Virgin Mary and Christ.
Innumerable images of the Virgin and Child were painted in the Renaissance, when Mary was the main focus of religious devotion, especially in Italy. The artist, Bernardino Bergognone, was the younger brother of one of the leading Milanese painters of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, Ambrogio Bergognone. You can make out his name in the letters around the hem of the Virgin’s mantle, where her shoe peeps out from beneath it.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Virgin and Child with Two Angels
- Artist
- Bernardino Bergognone
- Artist dates
- about 1455/60 - 1525
- Date made
- 1490-5
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 92.7 × 57.5 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1879
- Inventory number
- NG1077
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
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1840Catalogo della scelta Galleria Melzi vendibile in Milano nella Contrada di S. Maria Segreta, n.p. n.d.
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1898H.F. Cook, 3rd Bt, 'Introduction', in Catalogue of Pictures by Masters of the Milanese and Allied Schools of Lombardy, London 1898
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1901G. Carotti, Capi d'arte appartanenti a S.E. la duchessa Joséphine Melzi d'Eril-Barbò, Bergamo 1901
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1911National Gallery, An Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery, London 1911
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1948A.M. Hind, Early Italian Engraving, London 1948
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1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
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1958Ente manifestazioni milanesi, Arte Lombarda dai Visconti agli Sforza (exh. cat. Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde, April - June 1958), Milan 1958
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1961M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
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1986Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.