The Madonna of Humility
Fra Angelico·c. 1430
Historical Context
Fra Angelico's Madonna of Humility (c. 1430) depicts the Virgin seated on a cushion on the ground rather than on a throne — a compositional type known as the "Madonna of Humility" that originated in fourteenth-century Italian painting and emphasized Mary's virtue of humbleness. Fra Angelico, the Dominican friar who became one of the most beloved painters of the early Florentine Renaissance, brought a luminous, jewel-like beauty to devotional painting that combined medieval gold-ground tradition with the new naturalism emerging in early quattrocento Florence. This panel was likely intended for private devotion in a monastic or domestic setting.
Technical Analysis
The tempera on panel displays Fra Angelico's exquisite craftsmanship in the brilliant ultramarine of the Virgin's mantle, the delicate gold tooling, and the soft modeling of faces that reflects the influence of Masaccio's naturalism tempered by the painter's own lyrical sensibility.
Provenance
Anonymous collection or dealer, Italy; acquired in the late 19th century by Edward Steinkopff [1837-1906], Lydhurst, Waringlid, Haywards Heath, Sussex;[1] by inheritance to his daughter, Mary Margaret Steinkopff Stewart-Mackenzie [later Baroness Seaforth, d. 1933], Brahan Castle, Highland, Scotland. family of the barons of Castelmuro, by 1935;[2] (Robert Frank, Ltd., London);[3] (Rudolf Heinemann [Pinakos, Inc], Lugano) half share with (M. Knoedler & Co., New York and London); purchased 30 December 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[4] gift 1937 to NGA. [1] The date of Edward Steinkopff's death is given in the Knoedler prospectus, in NGA curatorial files. A sale of the collection of "the late Edward Steinkopff" took place on 26 February 1909 at Christie's in London. Steinkopff's daughter (and only child) was married in 1899 to James Alexander Francis Humberston Stewart-Mackenzie, who was created the 1st baron Seaforth in 1921 and who died in 1923. [2] A photograph in the archives of the Museo di Castello Sforzesco in Milan (no. 2430 D; a print is also preserved in the photographic collection of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence) shows the NGA painting repainted, probably after suffering a radical cleaning most likely having occurred at the time of the change in ownership in the mid-1930s. The photograph probably dates before 28 April 1936, when the director of the museum in Milan, Giorgio Nicodemi, wrote a letter (in NGA curatorial files), documenting the fact that the painting, which he hoped would be donated to the Castello Sforzesco, had already been shown to him. According to a note attached to the negative of the photograph in the photographic archive of the museum, the painting, owned by the family of the barons of Castelmuro, was at that time (1935) exhibited at the Museo Navale in Milan. [3] See Knoedler stock book no. 8, p. 156 and Knoedler sales book no. 13, p. 366, M. Knoedler and Co. records, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (copies NGA curatorial files). According to a letter from R. Heinemann, Lugano, to C. Henschel of the firm M. Knoedler & Co., New York (copy in NGA curatorial files), the painting was shipped to New York on 29 April 1936. [4] The date of purchase is given in the Mellon collection records, in NGA curatorial files.
