DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52600#0061
EARLY PERIOD 25
We may now turn to the largest picture in the
group with which we are now concerned—the pala
originally adorning the high altar of San Bartolomeo of
Vicenza, and at present kept in the Museo Civico
there.
A lofty, cross-vaulted ciborium out of doors.
Under it rises the high throne on which the Madonna
is seated—high in itself and through the low horizon
attaining a still stronger effect of height, standing
forth against the open sky. There she is enthroned,
erect and solemn, an imposing shape with severe, regular
features ; her eyes are cast down and she looks as if
remote from all contact with the world around her,
unfathomable, like an Indian idol. Her mantle, cast
over her head, frames her face with long perpendicular
lines. In her lifted right hand she holds a carnation
—the same motive as in the Madonna at Verona ; with
the left hand she grasps the leg of the Boy, who is
sitting, with perfect ease and security, on her left knee,
and a book in his left; under the right arcade St. Jerome, in yellowish
frock with greyish blue cowl; he reclines on the pillar, putting his left
leg across his right. Behind him, the cardinal’s hat on the ground,
and the lion. Further back, to the left, the rock with Christ’s sepulchre,
and still further, to the right, a row of houses. On canvas. 1.60 x 1.72.
Mentioned as being in San Lorenzo by Boschini (op. cit. p. 105 bis)
and Mosca (op. cit. i. 56 ; we learn from here that it adorned the fourth
altar to the right). Subsequently in the collection of the Earl of
Ashburnham, by whom it was lent to the Winter Exhibition of the
Royal Academy in 1895 (No. 167). Acquired in 1905 by the Berlin
Museum. Mr. Phillips points out (“ Exposition de maitres anciens a
la Royal Academy ” in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, ser. iii. vol. xiii. p. 347)
that the fine canvas used here is the same on which some other Montagnas,
most Mantegnas and the Cima of 1489 are painted. We may note
that the subject occurs very rarely on altar-pieces at this time (except in
-predella pictures) ; Jacob Burckhardt thought in fact the first rendering
of it above an altar to date from the period of the Manieristi (with
Marcello Venusti’s painting in Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome)
(Beitrdge zur Kunstgeschichte von Italien, p. 131). Crowe and Caval-
caselie, op. cit. i. 434, n. 3 (as missing).v;
We may now turn to the largest picture in the
group with which we are now concerned—the pala
originally adorning the high altar of San Bartolomeo of
Vicenza, and at present kept in the Museo Civico
there.
A lofty, cross-vaulted ciborium out of doors.
Under it rises the high throne on which the Madonna
is seated—high in itself and through the low horizon
attaining a still stronger effect of height, standing
forth against the open sky. There she is enthroned,
erect and solemn, an imposing shape with severe, regular
features ; her eyes are cast down and she looks as if
remote from all contact with the world around her,
unfathomable, like an Indian idol. Her mantle, cast
over her head, frames her face with long perpendicular
lines. In her lifted right hand she holds a carnation
—the same motive as in the Madonna at Verona ; with
the left hand she grasps the leg of the Boy, who is
sitting, with perfect ease and security, on her left knee,
and a book in his left; under the right arcade St. Jerome, in yellowish
frock with greyish blue cowl; he reclines on the pillar, putting his left
leg across his right. Behind him, the cardinal’s hat on the ground,
and the lion. Further back, to the left, the rock with Christ’s sepulchre,
and still further, to the right, a row of houses. On canvas. 1.60 x 1.72.
Mentioned as being in San Lorenzo by Boschini (op. cit. p. 105 bis)
and Mosca (op. cit. i. 56 ; we learn from here that it adorned the fourth
altar to the right). Subsequently in the collection of the Earl of
Ashburnham, by whom it was lent to the Winter Exhibition of the
Royal Academy in 1895 (No. 167). Acquired in 1905 by the Berlin
Museum. Mr. Phillips points out (“ Exposition de maitres anciens a
la Royal Academy ” in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, ser. iii. vol. xiii. p. 347)
that the fine canvas used here is the same on which some other Montagnas,
most Mantegnas and the Cima of 1489 are painted. We may note
that the subject occurs very rarely on altar-pieces at this time (except in
-predella pictures) ; Jacob Burckhardt thought in fact the first rendering
of it above an altar to date from the period of the Manieristi (with
Marcello Venusti’s painting in Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome)
(Beitrdge zur Kunstgeschichte von Italien, p. 131). Crowe and Caval-
caselie, op. cit. i. 434, n. 3 (as missing).v;