Emilian School, 18th century

Emilian School, 18th century

Madonna and Child

Oil on board, cm 45 x 24.5 

With frame, cm 62 x 44

This Madonnai enthroned with child fits into the context of the Emilian tradition of the sixteenth century, a thread referred to by Antonio Allegri known as the Correggio (1489 - 1534)- It is to this last that the unknown author of this canvas must refer. Specifically, the influence of the background Correggio recalls to mind, which develops according to concentric light beams, more orange towards the outside and more and more golden towards the inside. This gradient of colors, designed by Correggio for the frescoes, of great illusionistic-perspective and scenographic effect, in the dome of San Giovanni Evangelista in Parma, allows to increase the spiritual aspect of the characters, placed on a cloud carried up by cherubim. The head of the virgin almost touches the highest limit of the canvas, adding to the composition the idea of ascensional motion. The lesson of the Correggio is also absorbed by the treatment of the face of the madonna, sweetened by the look down but also by the composed tenderness of the embrace with the son and by the light effects of the drapes and the cloud. The composition can be compared with La Madonna di San Sebastiano del Correggio at the Gemaldegalerie in Dresden, executed in 1524 and with La Madonna in gloria by Benvenuto Tisi detto il Garofalo (1476 or 1481 -1559), executed between 1510 and 1520, Now in the National Gallery of Parma. The figurative model of this Madonna with child in glory is also found in many more recent examples, although there are variations, such as the presence of the Saints to attend the ascension into heaven of the Virgin. More recent examples of the maintenance of this iconography are traced, always in the Emilian area, in artists such as Guercino (1591-1666) with the Madonna and Child in Glory, today at the National Gallery of Parma.