Madonna with Sleeping Child

In the 1510s Luini developed the style that made his painting highly popular in his own time, and especially in the nineteenth century. He understood and adopted from Leonardo’s works just enough to make his Madonnas and saints ingratiatingly beautiful, and his narrative scenes attractively fairy-tale-like. By this time, however, he was already in his thirties, and scholars of the Lombard Renaissance have therefore sought to determine what path he had followed before becoming a follower of Leonardo. The reconstruction of his career has now reached the point where the first entry in his catalogue raisonné is precisely this magnificent Madonna, painted with exceptional care around 1500, which bears little resemblance to his mature works. The influence of Foppa, Bergognone, and contemporary Netherlandish art can be felt both in the repertory of motifs used in the composition and in the meticulous, polished execution of the details. The group of the sleeping Christ Child and the Virgin praying over him foreshadows the theme of the Pietà, while the Incarnation of the Word is symbolized by the Annunciation appearing above the city gate in the background. Vilmos Tátray, 2015.

Provenance

Simor collection. Purchased from the Bertinelli estate in Rome in 1878.

Exhibitions

• 2014 Milánó, Palazzo Reale
• 2014 Róma, Azienda Speciale Palexpo
• 2015 St. Pölten Diözesanmuseum

Bibliography

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