Madonna della Vittoria

[kavery]

ANDREA MANTEGNA
Painter of Mantua
(1431-1506)
Madonna della Vittoria
1496
tempera on canvas; 280 x 166
Parigi, Louvre


It was Francesco Gonzaga who commissioned this painting to commemorate the victory in the battle of Fornivo. In 1797 French commissars took it from the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Mantua and sent it to Paris where it has been ever since. In the middle of the canvas we see the Virgin enthroned, on the base of the throne are scenes from Genesis in false gilded bronze. Mary’s gesture of blessing Francesco Gonzaga who is dressed in the armor he wore when he won the battle recalls Antonello da Messina’s San Cassiano Altarpiece. To the left of the throne, rather than a portrait of Francesco’s wife Isabella, we see her patron saint, Elizabeth with her son John the Baptist. On either side of the throne, the warrior saints, Michael and George, hold the Virgin’s robe, an allusion to the iconography of the Madonna della Misericordia, while, in the background saints Andrew and Longinus of whom we see only the faces, open the composition. The semi-circular, apse-shaped pergola permits a glimpse of the sky enhanced with coral and citrus fruits that will reappear in Correggio’s decorations of the Camera di san Paolo in Parma.

Мне в этой картине безумно нравиться стена из подстриженного кустарника. Очень интересная находка.