The Virgin and Child c. 1630-32
Oil on canvas | 116.9 x 98.2 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 404639
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The composition of this tender depiction of the Madonna and Child is indebted to Titian’s Madonna and Child with Saints Stephen, Jerome and Maurice of c.1520 (now in the Louvre) which Van Dyck had seen in Italy. A drawing of part of it appears in his Italian sketchbook at Chatsworth. Van Dyck has removed the three saints and instead focused on the Madonna and Child, removing the narrative features of the original and creating a pure, devotional image. The colouring, with its red-white-blue triad, is certainly reminiscent of Venetian artists working in the sixteenth century. The picture has been dated to late in Van Dyck's second Flemish period, or conceivably after Van Dyck arrived in London. A number of copies exist.
Provenance
First recorded in store at Whitehall in 1688 (no 464); in the King's Gallery Kensington Palace from 1700 to 1732; by 1790 removed to the Second Drawing Room or 'Warm Room' at Buckingham Palace, where is appears in Pyne's illustrated Royal Residences of 1819 (RCIN 922143).
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Creator(s)
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
116.9 x 98.2 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
139.8 x 120.5 x 7.5 cm (frame, external)