Madonna and Child
Carlo Crivelli·c. 1490
Historical Context
Crivelli's Madonna and Child from around 1490 is a late work by the Venetian painter who spent his career in the Marche region of central Italy, outside the main cultural centers. By 1490, Crivelli was over sixty and his style had reached its maximum personal intensity — the tenderness of the Madonna-Child relationship combined with the characteristic ornamental richness of his decorative vocabulary, garlands of fruit, brocade draperies, and the elongated Gothic figure types he had maintained throughout his career despite the surrounding development of High Renaissance style. This late Madonna demonstrates his unwillingness to compromise his distinctive vision for the fashionable contemporary manner.
Technical Analysis
The tempera on panel displays Crivelli's hallmark precision — sharply defined forms, elaborate textile patterns, and characteristic swags of fruit and garlands rendered with almost trompe-l'oeil realism.
Provenance
Eugen Miller von Aichholz [1835-1919], Vienna.[1] Camillo Castiglioni, Vienna, by 1924;[2] (his sale, Frederik Muller & Co., Amsterdam, 17-20 November 1925, no. 10); purchased by (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London and New York) for Mme E. ten Cate, Enschede, The Netherlands; purchased April 1930 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York);[3] sold 1937 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1939 to NGA. [1] _Collections Camillo Castiglioni de Vienne_, 3 vols., Frederik Muller & Cie., Amsterdam, 1925: 1:3. According to a memorandum of 7 April 1949 (in NGA curatorial files), William Suida recalled that about 1910 von Aichholz told him he had bought this picture, perhaps around 1890, from a nobleman in a castle in the Romagna, Italy. [2] Castiglioni lent the painting to the 1924 exhibition in Vienna. [3] The negotiations for the painting were begun in February 1930, and are documented in a series of messages between Duveen Brothers' offices in New York, Paris, and London. The sale was concluded by 15 April 1930, when the Paris office cabled New York: "Concluded Crivelli...plus 10 percent for Venturi. Funds must be paid immediately...as are warned if payment delayed after holidays lady may change her mind." (Copies are in NGA curatorial files; Box 234, Folder 10, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles). See also Franz Drey, _Carlo Crivelli und seine Schule_. Munich, 1927: 122-123, and Pietro Zampetti, _Carlo Crivelli_, Florence, 1986: 287. [4] The Duveen Brothers letter confirming the sale of twenty-four paintings, including NGA 1939.1.264, is dated 9 March 1937; the provenance is given as "Ten Cate Collection" (copy in NGA curatorial files; Box 474, Folder 5, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1328.
