Lorenzo Costa with collaborators, 'The Virgin and Child with Saints', about 1498-1502

The Virgin and Child with Saints

Lorenzo Costa with collaborators

Not on display

About the work

Overview

The Virgin Mary and Christ Child are seated on a marble throne, which is elevated by two plinths decorated with biblical scenes. Below them stand two saints, Saint John the Baptist and probably Saint George in armour.

A number of changes suggest that the altarpiece was painted in more than one stage. The first version of the Virgin’s cloak was almost entirely repainted, for example, and Christ’s arm was altered. More radically, pairs of cherubic heads once seemed to float in the air around the Virgin. Some art historians have argued that the altarpiece was begun by one artist and finished by another, but the extensive changes don't necessarily mean that different artists were involved. Lorenzo Costa’s artistic ideals underwent a radical transformation around the time this altarpiece was painted, and the simplification of the setting and redesign of the drapery reflect the pictorial style of his later years.

In-depth

This large painting poses one of the most bewildering problems in the history of Ferrarese painting. Changes visible with the naked eye show that it was painted in more than one stage, and some art historians have argued that it was begun by one artist but finished by another, who made alterations to the figures and architecture.

The Virgin Mary and Christ Child are seated on a marble throne, which is elevated by two plinths decorated with biblical scenes. Above Mary’s head a barrel-vaulted arch is divided into square coffers, its front extensively carved and flanked by mosaics. In front stand two saints, Saint John the Baptist and probably Saint George in armour. All are painted from a very low viewpoint: the painting was clearly meant to be placed at a considerable height.

Ferrarese painters often used complex architectural settings to give some of the visual variety of the traditional polyptychs while keeping the spatial unity of the pala format. Here, in two roundels in the spandrels of the arch, the Annunciation to the Virgin is shown as if carved in white marble relief on a gold mosaic background; the same background is used for the scenes on either side of the arch. Below Mary’s feet, also in relief, the Fall is depicted. In the lower plinth, reliefs alternate with painted scenes, showing major events from Mary’s life.

This panel was the altarpiece for the oratory of the confraternity of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, built between 1498 and 1500 above the refectory of the convent of S. Francesco in Ferrara. It formed the centre of a complex ensemble of panel paintings, frescoes and painted statues on the east wall of the oratory. In spite of the altarpiece’s traditional name, there is almost no evidence of any association with the Strozzi family: the patron was doubtless the confraternity.

Technical analysis clarifies the extent of the alterations. The Virgin’s head was initially more upright, and the first version of her cloak was almost entirely repainted, with many changes made to its folds and contours; the yellow lining, for example, was not part of the original design. Her left hand was altered, as was Christ’s arm, to bring his hand closer to hers, with his thumb over her finger. The cloak of the armoured saint did not originally hang from his left shoulder (you can see the architecture and chain mail painted behind it); John the Baptist’s cloak was a different colour, and was tied further to the right, on the other side of the cross. His camel skin, hanging down to the left of his legs, was lengthened and he was first shown holding a smaller, open book.

More radically, pairs of cherubic heads once seemed to float in the air around the Virgin (two level with her elbow, two level with her shoulders and a third pair possibly looking down from above her head). Technical analysis has not shown anything other than heads; if they had wings or clouds, these were painted in pigments that do not show up in X-radiographs. It’s not clear if the vault was present when the cherubs were painted, but the sky and the red curtains were certainly part of the second stage of painting. The areas behind the saints were also simplified: the stone pilasters supporting the cross-beams were initially wider, and the wall to the right was gilded to look like mosaic.

The extent of these changes have led art historians to propose that the altarpiece was begun by Lorenzo Costa and completed by Pellegrino Munari, or begun by Franceso Maineri and revised by Costa. But while the extent of the changes is surprising, they don't necessarily mean that different artists were involved. Costa was especially partial to complex architectural ensembles with subordinate narratives and liked stone reliefs against a gold mosaic ground. It’s now thought that the painting was mainly by him, possibly with two or three other artists working on the lesser narratives. Costa’s artistic ideals underwent a radical transformation around the time this altarpiece was painted, and the simplification of the setting and redesign of the drapery reflect the pictorial style of his later years.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Virgin and Child enthroned with Saint George (?) and Saint John the Baptist ('Pala Strozzi')
Artist: Lorenzo Costa with collaborators
Artist dates: 1460 - 1535
Date made: about 1498-1502
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 247 × 163.8 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1882
Inventory number: NG1119
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection

Provenance

The altarpiece is first recorded by Guarini in 1621 over the high altar in the Oratorio della Concezione, also known as S. Maria della Scala, which was attached to the church of S. Francesco in Ferrara. Guarini’s description is too brief to be of any use in establishing the identity of the picture, but there are fuller accounts made in the following century that do so. When the confraternity was suppressed in 1772, the revenues of the oratory were diverted to the Ospedale (or Luogo Pio) degli Esposti and the pictures were sold to John Udny (1755–1802), British consul in Leghorn and an art dealer. The exception was NG 1119, which for a long time remained in a corridor of the hospital. In 1859 it was moved to the adjoining church of S. Cristoforo. In 1859, After long negotiations, and bidding against the National Gallery, the noted collector Marchese Massimiliano Strozzi Sacrati (1797–1859) managed to acquire the painting for 4,000 scudi. In 1882 Frederic Burton, with the help of William Blundell Spence (1814–1900), secured the altarpiece for the National Gallery, paying Strozzi Sacrati’s nephew (also called Massimiliano) the huge sum of £3,000.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Giorgia Mancini and Nicholas Penny, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings’, vol. 3, ‘Bologna and Ferrara’, London 2016; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2014

Building the Picture: Architecture in Italian Renaissance Painting

The National Gallery (London)

30 April 2014 - 21 September 2014

Bibliography

1621

M.A. Guarini, Compendio historico… di Ferrara, Ferrara 1621
1770

C. Barotti, Pitture e scolture di Ferrara, Ferrara 1770
1773

G.A. Scalabrini, Memorie istoriche delle chiese di Ferrara, Ferrara 1773
1782

C. Cittadella, Catalogo istorico de' pittori e scultori ferraresi, 4 vols, Ferrara 1782
1844

G. Baruffaldi, Vite de' pittori e scultori Ferraresi, ed. G. Boschini, Ferrara 1844
1844

C. Cittadella, Indice manuale delle cose più rimarcabili in pittura, scultura, architettura, della città e borghi di Ferrara, Ferrara 1844
1856

C. Laderchi, La pittura ferrarese, Ferrara 1856
1892

G. Morelli, Italian Painters: Critical Studies of Their Works, 2 vols, London 1892
1897

G. Gruyer, L'art ferrarais à l'époque des princes d'Este, Paris 1897
1907

B. Berenson, North Italian Painters of the Renaissance, New York 1907
1933

C. Gamba, L'esposizione della pittura Ferrarese del Rinascimento, Ferrara 1933
1934

R. Longhi, Officina ferrarese, Rome 1934
1937

P. Pouncey, 'Ercole Grandi's Masterpiece', The Burlington Magazine, LXX/409, 1937, pp. 161-8
1940

R. Longhi, Ampliamento nell'Officina ferrarese, Florence 1940
1954

C. Padovani, La critica d'arte e la pittura ferrarese, Rovigo 1954
1958

M. Calvesi, 'Nouvi affreschi ferraresi dell'oratorio della concezione', Bollettino d'arte, 1958, pp. 141-56, 309ff
1962

Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools (excluding the Venetian), London 1962
1967

R. Varese, Lorenzo Costa, Milan 1967
1975

C. Gould, Delaroche and Gautier: Gautier's Views on the 'Execution of Lady Jane Grey' and on other Compositions by Delaroche, London 1975
1975

S. Zamboni, Pittori di Ercole I d'Este: Giovan Francesco Maineri - Lazzaro Grimaldi - Domencio Panetti - Michele Cottenini, Milan 1975
1977

C.M. Brown, Lorenzo Costa, Ann Arbor 1977
1977

P. Tosetti, 'Lorenzo Costa', University of Padua: Annals of the Faculty of Arts and Philiosophy, II, 1977
1985

C.T. Dowd, 'The Travel Diary of Otto Mündler', The Walpole Society, LI, 1985
1987

Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1987
1987

D. Benati, 'La pittura a Ferrara e nei domini estensi nel secondo Quattrocento Parma e Fiacenza', in F. Zeri (ed.), La pittura in Italia: Il Quattrocento, Milan 1987, pp. 256-71
1988

A. Buzzoni, 'La pittura a Bologna, Ferrara e Modena nel Cinquecento', in G. Briganti (ed.), La pittura in Italia: Il Cinquecento, Milan 1988, pp. 255-77
1991

U. Bauer, 'Giovanni Francesco Maineri als Miniator', Pantheon, XLIX, 1991, pp. 88-96
1991

K. Lippincott, 'A Masterpiece of Renaissance Drawing: A Sacrificial Scene by Gian Francesco de' Maineri', Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, XVII/1, 1991, pp. 6-21, 88-9
1992

J. Bentini, La Pinacoteca nazionale di Ferrara: Catalogo generale, Bologna 1992
1994

P. Pouncey, Philip Pouncey: Raccolta di scritti (1937-1985), Rimini 1994
1994

M. Fabianski, 'La "Madonna di San Giorgio" del Correggio', Accademia Clementina, 1994, pp. 9-23
1995

A. Ballarin, Dosso Dossi: La pittura a Ferrara negli anni del Ducato di Alfonso I, Padua 1995
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2016

Mancini, Giorgia, and Nicholas Penny, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, 3, Bologna and Ferrara, London 2016

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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A bearded Saint Philip stands in a landscape, immersed in a book. A slender cross rests against his shoulder, with another cross attached to it where Christ’s crucified body would have been hung, a reference to Philip’s martyrdom (he was crucified upside down).This painting was originally part of...

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This painting of the Virgin and Child enthroned was once the central element of a large multi-panelled altarpiece made for the oratory of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Faenza. In it, heaven and earth mingle. The Virgin is depicted as Queen of Heaven, although she has no crown: behind her is a green silk...

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You've viewed 6 of 9 works

Lorenzo Costa with collaborators, 'The Virgin and Child with Saints', about 1498-1502

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Exhibition history

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Lorenzo Costa