Madonna and Child with two angels

Giambattista Pittoni was a leading Venetian painter of the eighteenth century who specialised in large altarpieces and devotional compositions, his style representing the Rococo lightening of the Venetian Baroque tradition. His Madonna and Child with Two Angels, painted in 1737, demonstrates his mature manner — warm, softly lit, with a graceful figure style indebted to Veronese but modernised through Rococo elegance. Pittoni was a prolific contributor to Venetian church decoration and enjoyed considerable international patronage.

The Madonna and Child are shown in a soft, intimate grouping with attendant angels, the figures modelled with Pittoni's characteristic warmth and gentle idealisation. His palette favours warm golds and soft blues, and his handling of drapery has the airy, unstructured quality of mature Venetian Rococo. The angels' poses are graceful without the exaggerated elegance that marks lesser Rococo painters.