Madonna col Bambino in trono

Bartolomeo Vivarini's Madonna col Bambino in trono, painted around 1485, presents the enthroned Virgin and Christ Child in the format of a formal sacra conversazione appropriate to an altarpiece or devotional panel for public display. Vivarini headed the family workshop in Murano that was one of the most productive painting enterprises in the Venetian territories during the fifteenth century, supplying altarpieces to churches throughout the lagoon city and the Veneto. The Vivarini workshop operated in deliberate distinction from the Bellini family workshop, maintaining a more conservative style rooted in the gold-ground tradition and Mantegna's hard, sculptural figure style even as Giovanni Bellini was transforming Venetian painting with atmospheric oil technique. The Madonna and Child enthroned was the most fundamental devotional image of medieval and Renaissance art, its formal frontality and hierarchical arrangement serving the liturgical and devotional needs of church interiors. The tempera medium used here — characteristic of the Vivarini workshop even as oil was becoming standard — allowed the crisp, jeweled color and detailed drapery that were hallmarks of their established style.

Tempera on panel with Vivarini's characteristic crisp figure drawing and bright coloring. The work demonstrates the artistic qualities characteristic of Bartolomeo Vivarini's period.