- Museum number
- 1895,0915.804
- Description
-
Madonna della Misericordia; seated on a dais to front, with two kneeling figures below and two winged figures behind
Brush drawing in grey ink, heightened with white, on blue paper
- Production date
- 1449-1508
- Dimensions
-
Height: 163 millimetres
-
Width: 88 millimetres (top arched)
- Curator's comments
- Both Collobi and the Tietzes date to this circa 1490, comparing it to the painting of the 'Coronation of the Virgin' in the Accademia Carrarra, Bergamo.
Lit.: J.C. Robinson, 'Descriptive Catalogue of Drawings by the Old Masters, forming the Collection of John Malcolm of Poltalloch, Esq.', London, 1876, no. 357 (as Ascribed to Giovanni Bellini); K.T. Parker, 'North Italian Drawings of the Quattrocento', London, 1927, no. 49, p. 32; H. Tietze and E. Tietze-Conrat, 'The Drawings of the Venetian Painters in the 15th and 16th Centuries', New York, 1944, no. 253, pp. 60-1; A.E. Popham and P. Pouncey, 'Italian drawings in the BM, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries', London, 1950, I, no. 6, II, pl. X (with previous literature); C. Quattrini, 'Un incunabolo disegnato da Lazzaro Bastiani', "Prospettiva",65, 1992, p. 58, fig. 3
Popham & Pouncey 1950
Literature: JCR 357; K. T. Parker, North Italian Drawings, 1927, p. 32, pl. 49; L. Collobi, op. cit., p. 50; Tietzes, no. 253, pl. xiii, 3.
Catalogued by Robinson as 'ascribed to Giovanni Bellini'. The convincing attribution to Bastiani was first proposed by Parker, who suggested that the drawing might be a design for a pax. Collobi, who, like the Tietzes, accepts the attribution, dates the drawing in the period of the Bergamo ‘Coronation’ (1490).
The Virgin wears a large oval pectoral on which is represented the Infant Christ blessing; for an interpretation of this motive, see H.Rosenau, ‘Burlington’, lxxxv (1944), pp. 176 ff.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1895
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1895,0915.804
