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Probably by Bartolomeo Montagna, 'The Virgin and Child', probably 1481

Key facts
Full title The Virgin and Child
Artist Probably by Bartolomeo Montagna
Artist dates living 1459; died 1523
Date made probably 1481
Medium and support fresco
Dimensions 83.8 × 57.8 cm
Acquisition credit Presented by Lady Layard, 1900
Inventory number NG1696
Location Not on display
Collection Main Collection
Previous owners
Sir Austen Henry Layard
The Virgin and Child
Probably by Bartolomeo Montagna
/

The Virgin and Christ Child are painted in fresco, a technique that involved painting directly onto fresh plaster. The Virgin’s mantle would originally have been a much more vivid shade of blue.

This once belonged to Austen Henry Layard, archaeologist and explorer. He was a founder of the Arundel Society, which aimed to document frescoes in Italian churches and palaces through drawings and art-historical descriptions.

When it was in Layard’s collection an inscription on its modern frame noted that it was from the choir of the church at Magrè, near the town of Schio in the province of Vicenza – but we don't know now what the evidence for this suggestion may have been. The painting was once thought to be by Giovanni Bellini or one of his followers, but now the suggestion of Montagna seems more likely. Montagna was from Vicenza, but the fragment is so damaged that it’s not possible to be certain who painted it.

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More paintings by Bartolomeo Montagna

Saint Zeno, Saint John the Baptist and a Female Martyr
Saint Zeno, Saint John the Baptist and a Female Martyr
Bartolomeo Montagna
Saint John the Baptist is shown between Saint Zeno, the fourth-century Bishop of Verona, and a female saint. Because of the finery of her clothing and her long flowing hair, she may be Saint Catherine, who was a princess from Alexandria. However, the saint is usually shown with the spiked wheel u...
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The Virgin and Child
The Virgin and Child
Bartolomeo Montagna
The picture has been transferred from its original panel and placed onto a canvas, a process that has damaged the paint surface. Nevertheless, the composition, where the Virgin is placed behind a ledge and in front of a cloth, shows Montagna’s artistic debt to his teacher Giovanni Bellini. The s...
Not on display
The Virgin and Child
The Virgin and Child
Bartolomeo Montagna
We know little about Montagna’s training but it is possible that he spent some time in Giovanni Bellini’s workshop in Venice. This composition, in which the holy figures are shown in half-length often set against a landscape background and usually behind a marble ledge, was pioneered by the Venet...
Not on display