Madonna col Bambino e un angelo (c.1496-1500)

Perugino (c.1446-1523)

Madonna col Bambino e un angelo (The Virgin and Child with an Angel)
c.14961500
Oil and egg temera on poplar, 114 x 63.5 cm
National GalleryLondon

This was the central panel of the predella of an altarpiece made for the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza.

Altarpiece, Certosa di Pavia (c.1496-1500)

In this painting Perugino has stressed the humility of the Virgin Mary, positioning her directly in a grassy meadow as she kneels before the infant Christ, a chubby baby. He is supported by an angel who looks towards Mary, sharing in her knowledge of his divinity.

The Virgin’s pinkish-red garment stands out against the blues and greens of the lush Italian countryside. This landscape contains all the features favoured by fifteenth-century painters: a river winds through the valley and past a small town, towards distant mountains. The further back we go, the more blue the mountains appear – a trick to make them seem like they are miles away. This technique, known as aerial perspective and invented by Leonardo, mimics how our perception of colour changes with distance, creating the effect of a vast landscape.

This is the central panel of the lower tier of an altarpiece made for the Duke of Milan (the two flanking panels, The Archangel Michael and The Archangel Raphael with Tobias, are also in our collection). It shows off Perugino’s skill at painting in oil, blending colours to create subtle transitions between tones. This was particularly effective in the Virgin’s complexion, which is made up of many different shades of peach, cream and pink. With oil paint, features could be defined through the use of lighter and darker shades, eliminating the need for contour lines. When dark lines are used, they have added emphasis: the strongest accents in the painting of the Virgin’s face are the black lines that define the bottom of her upper eyelids, adding weight to her humble downward gaze as she worships Christ, her infant son.

Infrared reflectography shows the underdrawing, and by comparing it with the final painted image we can see that Perugino changed his mind several times. The hovering winged angels at the top of the image, for example, were not part of the original design, and have been painted over the sky – usually painters in the period would paint landscape and sky around figures. Infrared reflectography shows that their outlines are made up of dotted lines, suggesting that the design was transferred from paper: pin pricks would be made along the lines of a paper design, then charcoal dust would be rubbed through and onto the panel. (NG)

Left panel:

Perugino (c.1446-1523)
L’Arcangelo Michele
c.14961500
National GalleryLondon

 

 

Right panel:

Perugino (c.1446-1523)
L’Arcangelo Raffaele con Tobia
c.14961500
National GalleryLondon

 

 

Perugino painted this altarpiece for the Duke of MilanLudovico Sforza (known as il Moro). He had been recommended by the Duke’s agent, who described him as ‘an exceptional master [whose] works have an angelic and very sweet air’.

The picture stood upon the altar in the side chapel dedicated to the Archangel Michael in the Carthusian monastery (also known as a charterhouse or certosa) in Pavia, a town outside Milan where the Duke had his palace. Our panels formed the lower tier of two in this large-scale construction. The upper tier showed the Annunciation: the Archangel Gabriel, on one panel, giving the Virgin Mary, on another panel, the news that she would conceive the son of God. Between these panels was an image of God in glory, which is still in the church.

It seems that the Duke was not happy with the length of time that Perugino was spending on the paintings – he wrote to his agent in 1499 demanding that he set the painter a deadline. Shortly afterwards, however, the Duke was captured by invading French forces, and the altarpiece was completed in the early sixteenth century by two other painters: Fra Bartolommeo and Mariotto Albertinelli.

The painting is an excellent example of Perugino’s skill in working with oil paint. According to Vasari, the sixteenth-century biographer of artists, he was praised for his ‘harmonious blending of colours’; painters travelled from as far as FranceSpain and Germany to see his work. This was due to his knowledge of the Netherlandish technique of painting in oil, which was renowned for being incredibly sophisticated. The skin, for example, was painted using thin layers of paint, taking advantage of the white ground covering the panel to make the flesh appear pale. More generally, using oil enabled him to create a depth of colour by layering different tones, using translucent glazes which modified the colours beneath. It is possible that his talent at painting in oil was due to a visit to Venice in 1495 – artists there were more expert in the medium than in central Italy, where he was trained.

The pictures were removed to the picture gallery in Milan in the late eighteenth century, at which time copies were made. By the time they were purchased by the National Gallery in the mid-nineteenth century they had been cut down in various places, and all of them at the bottom edge. Fortunately, their original appearance is preserved in the copies which remain in the monastery. The central panel of the upper tier is also still in the church, surrounded by two paintings by Ambrogio Bergognone that originally belonged to a different altarpiece. (NG)

See also:

• Fancelli, Chiara (c.1470-1541) | Sforza, Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan (1452-1508)