The Virgin Mary gazes at the infant Christ who feeds from her breast. The naked child is encircled in his mother’s arms and twists away from us. Our eye is drawn from the Virgin’s delicate fingers, up the line of Christ’s back and to the expression of devotion on her face.
Titian appears to be citing a very similar design by Michelangelo and does capture some of the grandeur and strength of his colleague’s figures in the Christ Child’s twisting pose and the Virgin’s heroic build, but he simultaneously brings a painterly softness and tenderness to his picture. The silvery harmonies combine with tremulous brushwork to make the solid forms of the Virgin and Child seem to dissolve into shimmering light.
Titian may have kept this painting in his studio and worked on it during the last years of his life. The unblended brushstrokes and restrained colour scheme are typical of his very late works such as The Death of Actaeon in the National Gallery.
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Nicholas Penny, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings’, vol. 2, ‘Venice 1540–1600’, London 2008; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
This is a sixteenth-century Italian cassetta frame from the Veneto region. It is carved from walnut wood and gilt, in an effect known as ‘lumeggiato in oro’. The back moulding has a gilt tongue and painted dart motif, followed by a double pearl-and-reel motif. An ornate frieze features an undulating pattern of flowers and leaves that resembles rambling roses, composed of five petals arranged in outer and inner circles, highlighted by a central pearl. These elements are fully gilded and were originally accented with red lacquer. The gilt stems and leaves, detailed with dark-coloured veins, stand out against the dark walnut wood, which is enhanced with punch-tooling. In the corners of the frame are gilt acanthus leaves. Closer to the sight moulding, diamond-shaped gilt pearls are accompanied by a gilt cavetto.
It is likely that the diamond pearls near the sight edge were originally lacquered. The frame was acquired in 2017 and to accommodate Titian’s The Virgin suckling the Infant Christ was fitted with a walnut slip.
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.
