Bernardino Luini, 'The Virgin and Child with Saint John', probably late 1510s
About the work
Overview
The Virgin Mary sits in the shelter of a rocky grotto, with the infants Christ and John the Baptist beside her. This is an early work by the Milanese painter Luini, He was deeply influenced by Leonardo, who was working in Milan from about 1482 to 1499. The figure of the Virgin and the infant Baptist as well as the rocky backdrop seem to be derived, although inverted and with variations, from Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks, also in the National Gallery’s collection (another version is in the Louvre, Paris).
The plants growing in the foreground, painted in botanical detail, are native to northern Italy and probably all have a symbolic Christian significance – lupin, dandelion, columbine, wheat and violet. It is possible that The Virgin of the Rocks was being completed in Leonardo’s studio in Milan between 1506 and 1508, when Luini may have seen it. However it is unlikely that Luini’s own painting is of such an early date.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Virgin and Child with Saint John
- Artist
- Bernardino Luini
- Artist dates
- about 1480 - 1532
- Date made
- probably late 1510s
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 88.3 × 66 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Mond Bequest, 1924
- Inventory number
- NG3935
- 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
-
1898H.F. Cook, Catalogue of Pictures by Masters of the Milanese and Allied Schools of Lombardy, London 1898
-
1898G. Frizzoni, 'Exposition de maîtres de l'école lombarde à Londres', Gazette des beaux-arts, II, 1898
-
1899G.C. Williamson, Bernardino Luini, London 1899
-
1910J.P. Richter, The Mond Collection: An Appreciation, London 1910
-
1911L. Beltrami, Luini 1512-1532: Materiale di studio, Milan 1911
-
1911G. Frizzoni, 'La raccolta Mond ed opere attinenti alla medesima', Rassegna d'arte, XI, 1911, pp. 43-8
-
1912C.J. Ffoulkes, 'Il catalogo mond', L'arte, XV, 1912, pp. 263-80
-
1923M.W. Brockwell, 'Correspondance d'Angleterre: La collection Mond', Gazette des beaux-arts, V/8, 1923, pp. 117-26
-
1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
-
1956A. Ottino della Chiesa, Bernardino Luini, Novara 1956
-
1961M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
-
1972M. Precerutti Garberi, Capolavori d'arte lombarda: I leonardeschi ai raggi 'x' (exh. cat. Castello Sforzesco, 23 November - 31 December 1972), Milan 1972
-
1986Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
-
1998N. Penny, 'The Study and Imitation of Old Picture-Frames', The Burlington Magazine, CXL/1143, 1998, pp. 375-82
-
1999M.W. Kwakkelstein, 'The Use of Sculptural Models by Italian Renaissance Painters, Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Rocks Reconsidered in Light of His Working Procedures', Gazette des beaux-arts, CXXXIII/1563, 1999, pp. 181-98
-
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.
Images
More works by Bernardino Luini
