Probably by Benozzo Gozzoli, 'The Virgin and Child with Angels', about 1447-50

The Virgin and Child with Angels

Probably by Benozzo Gozzoli

Not on display

About the work

Overview

The Virgin’s sculptural presence – her voluminous draperies look as though carved from stone – is a moment of stillness in this little panel that rings with colour, pattern and gold details.

Gozzoli, who trained as a goldsmith and also painted illuminated manuscripts, was a popular artist among the wealthy and powerful. His glittering and exquisitely detailed pictures were luxury objects suitable for magnificent patrons; he worked on frescoes for the Pope and the ruling Florentine family, the Medici. Gozzoli may have painted this picture for an important cleric – the central shield decorating the edge of the canopy is engraved with a cross.

The formal pageantry of this scene is broken up with intimate details such as the angel who leans over to offer the infant Christ a little bird. The hedgerow in bloom that encloses the figures creates the effect of a private audience with the Virgin and Child and is probably meant to refer to the hortus conclusus, the enclosed garden that symbolised Mary’s virginity.

In-depth

The Virgin’s serene gaze anchors the viewer’s attention in this busy scene. Her plump oval face makes her look especially young but the crisp folds of her heavy blue cloak which ripple around her feet have a sculptural quality that lend her presence weight. She is seated under a red and gold canopy, supported at its four corners by angels, holding the Christ Child in her arms. Looking in on the scene, two more angels hold their hands in prayer while another pair face each other, perhaps in conversation.

Gozzoli is the most likely author of an illuminated manuscript, now in the British Library (Harley 1340) made for a member of the papal court in the 1440s. Its similarity to this panel is one of the reasons that this picture is thought to have been painted by him. We know Gozzoli was in Rome in this decade as he was working with Fra Angelico on now-destroyed frescoes for the Vatican. This panel’s small scale, intricate details and vibrant colours are similar to manuscript illuminations. Floral borders were popular in manuscripts; the holy figures in this scene are framed by a fringed floral tapestry beneath their feet and the top of a hedgerow in bloom. The hedgerow tightly encloses the canopy and the figures, giving the effect of a private audience with the Virgin and Christ Child. The setting is probably supposed to recall the hortus conclusus, the enclosed garden, that symbolised Mary’s virginity.

The symmetrical arrangement of the majority of the angels is broken only by the central angel who, leaning over the Virgin’s shoulder, offers the naked infant Christ a small bird. Christ reveals his dual human and divine nature by reaching for the bird with one hand and blessing the viewer with the other. The painting’s lively mood is reinforced by the use of bright colours. The angels' robes alternate between pink, red, and blue, which singles them out as individuals rather than a uniform group. Some of the robes change colour as they hit the light – an effect known as cangiante, meaning changing.

Much of the panel’s gilded decoration has been repainted. The canopy’s red ceiling has been repainted but the sgraffito decoration is largely original. The edge is decorated with nine shields surrounded by wreaths which have been created by scoring the gold leaf with a sharp tool. It is unclear whether they once contained coats of arms. The central shield contains a cross design which may point to a clerical patron.

The image of the Virgin under a canopy appears in Sienese but not Florentine painting, suggesting the artist may at least have had an interest in Sienese painting. The Sienese artist Simone Martini’s fresco painted in 1315 for the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, which depicts the Virgin and Child seated under a magnificent canopy surrounded by saints and angels, may have served as a model.

Small panels of the Virgin and Child are also rare throughout Italy in this period but some survive, usually paired with a Crucifixion scene in a diptych. The edges of this panel were trimmed before it was placed in this frame in the nineteenth century, meaning that any evidence of a hinge that would have connected it to another panel is now missing.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Virgin and Child with Angels
Artist: Probably by Benozzo Gozzoli
Artist dates: 1420/2(?) - 1497
Date made: about 1447-50
Medium and support: egg tempera on wood
Dimensions: 29.2 × 21.6 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1945
Inventory number: NG5581
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Samuel Rogers
Frame: 19th-century Italian Frame

Provenance

In the collection of Lord Weymouth, by whom sold at Phillips, 20 June 1827 (lot 262) and bought by Chevalier Franchi, sold at his death (as by Giotto) at Christie’s, 22 May 1829. In the collection of Miss Sarah Rogers by 1844, possibly by 1835, and then in the sale of her brother, the poet Samuel Rogers, Christie’s, 2 May 1856 (lot 614); bought for £325 10s. by Charles Sackville Bale; Bale sale, 14 May 1881 (lot 290, as Angelico); bought by J.C. Robinson for the collection of Sir Frederick Cook Bt (1817–1901) at Doughty House, Richmond; purchased from the Cook Trustees, with the Champney, Colnaghi and Temple-West Funds, 1945.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Dillian Gordon, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings’, vol. 1, London 2003; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2014

Kenneth Clark

Tate Britain

19 May 2014 - 10 August 2014
2021

Benozzo Gozzoli and the Chapel of the Magi

Palazzo Medici Riccardi

15 December 2021 - 15 March 2022

Bibliography

1844

A.M. Jameson, Companion to the Most Celebrated Private Galleries of Art in London: Containing Accurate Catalogues, Arranged Alphabetically, for Immediate Reference, Each Preceded by an Historical & Critical Introduction […], London 1844
1854

G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being and Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. […], vol. 2, trans. E. Eastlake, London 1854
1903

R.L. Douglas, 'Esposizione londinesi', L'arte, VI, 1903, pp. 107-10
1911

F. Schottmüller, Fra Angelico da Fiesole, Stuttgart 1911
1913

H.F. Cook (ed.), A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook, Bt, 3 vols, London 1913
1923

R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols, The Hague 1923
1932

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places, Oxford 1932
1934

G. Pudelko, 'Studien über Domenico Veneziano', Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, IV, 1934, pp. 145-200
1940

R. Longhi, 'Fatti di Masolino e di Masaccio', Critica d'arte, V, 1940, pp. 145-91
1947

M. Salmi, 'Un ipotesi per Piero della Francesca', Arti Figurative, III, 1947, pp. 78-84
1951

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
1955

The National Gallery, The National Gallery: 1938 - 1954, London 1955
1961

M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
1963

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Work, with an Index of Places: Florentine School, 2 vols, New York 1963
1974

J. Pope-Hennessy, Fra Angelico, 2nd edn, London 1974
1980

H. Wohl, The Paintings of Domenico Veneziano, ca. 1410-1461: A Study in Florentine Art of the Early Renaissance, Oxford 1980
1985

L.C. Vegas, 'L'Angelico e il "De pitura" dell'Alberti', Paragone, 419-423, 1985, pp. 97-106
1986

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
1990

A. Padoa Rizzo, 'L'età di Masaccio', Antichità viva, XXIX/5, 1990, pp. 56-9
1990

L. Bellosi, Pittura di luce: Giovanni di Francesco e l'arte fiorentina di metà Quattrocento (exh. cat. Casa Buonarotti, 16 May - 1 September 1990), Milan 1990
1991

J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
1992

A. Padoa Rizzo, Benozzo Gozzoli: Catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence 1992
1994

C.A. Luchinat, Benozzo Gozzoli, Florence 1994
1995

M. Boskovits, 'Attorno al tondo Cook: Precisiazione sul Beato Angelico su Filippo Lippi e altri', Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, I, 1995, pp. 32-67
1996

D.C. Ahl, Benozzo Gozzoli, New Haven 1996
1996

C.A. Luchinat, Giardini Medicei: Giardini di palazzo e di villa nella Firenze del Quattrocento, Milan 1996
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2003

Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings, 1, London 2003
2005

E. Danziger, 'The Cook Collection: Its Founder and Its Inheritors', in Christie's, Old Master Pictures, London 2005, pp. 44-54

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.

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