The Madonna of the Stars
Jacopo Tintoretto·c. 1575/1585
Historical Context
The Madonna of the Stars by Jacopo Tintoretto and his workshop, painted around 1575-1585, depicts the Virgin Mary surrounded by a celestial host. Tintoretto, one of the three great masters of late Renaissance Venice alongside Titian and Veronese, was known for his dramatic compositions and visionary religious imagery. His large workshop, which included his children Marietta and Domenico, helped produce the enormous number of paintings commissioned by Venetian churches and scuole.
Technical Analysis
The oil on canvas shows Tintoretto's characteristic bold, rapid brushwork and dramatic use of light against deep shadow. The dynamic, spiraling composition and luminous figures emerging from darkness demonstrate his theatrical approach to religious painting.
Provenance
(Kurt Walter Bachstitz Gallery, The Hague), by 1921.[1] Ralph Harman [1873-1931] and Mary Batterman [d.1951] Booth, Grosse Pointe, Michigan, by 1923;[2] gift 1947 to NGA. [1] Published by Georg Gronau, _The Bachstitz Gallery Collection, vol. 3: Objects of Art and Paintings_, Berlin, 1921: pl. 92; and Detlev von Hadeln, _Zeichnungen des Giacomo Tintoretto_, Berlin, 1922: 95, repro. [2] C.B. Ely, "Two Works by Tintoretto in the Detroit Museum," _Art in America_ 12 (1923): 32-37.
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