A sculptor as well as a painter, Neroccio de’ Landi was one of the most accomplished artists of late fifteenth-century Siena. His painted productions centered on devotional images of the Madonna and Child. Here their embrace is so close that their faces touch. Mary embraces her Son closely, suggesting affection, and also protection. Iconographically, the gesture recalls an ancient Byzantine prototype for the Virgin of Tenderness. Jesus holds in his hand a swallow, a symbol of His Resurrection.
Details
- Artist Name: Neroccio de' Landi (Italian, 1447-1500)
- Title: Madonna and Child
- Date: c. 1470-1480
- Medium: Tempera and gold leaf on panel
- Dimensions: 18-1/8 x 12 in. (46.0 x 30.5 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.2013.1.2.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
Charles Butler, Connaught Place, London, by 1909 (sale, London, Christie’s, 25 May 1911, lot 88, as Sienese School).
Rita da Acosta Lydig, New York (sale, New York, American Art Galleries, 4 April 1913, lot 128, ill.).
Otto H. Kahn (d. 1934), New York, by 1917, to;
[Mogmar Art Corporation (Otto H. Kahn), sold March, 1942 to];
[Duveen Bros., New York, stock no. 29970; sold 1965 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation, transferred in November 2013 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Loan Exhibition of Italian Primitives in aid of the American War Relief
- F. Kleinberger Galleries (New York, N.Y.), to
Loan Exhibition of the Italian Renaissance
- New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1923 to 1923
Mostra d'Arte Italiana
- Rome, Palazzo Venezia, 1945 to 1945
[on loan]
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1969-10-24 to
[on loan]
- Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 1965-03-15 to 1968-03-23
Art of Tuscany: Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
- New York, Duveen Galleries, 1963-11 to 1963-12
Lock, Stock and Barrel: Norton Simon's Purchase of Duveen Brothers Gallery
- Norton Simon Museum, 2014-10-24 to 2015-02-16
- Berenson, Bernard, The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance, p. 206
- Townsend, James B., American Art News, p. 6
- Valentiner, Wilhelm R., Art in America, fig. 2 p. 75
- American Art News, p. 1
- Borroughs, Bryson, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, p. 108
- Brockwell, M. W., The Connoisseur, p. 237
- McCormick, William S., International Studio, p. 286
- Frankfurter, Alfred M, Art News, p. 10
- Marle, Raimond van, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, pp. 292-293
- Breuning, Margaret, Art Digest, p. 7
- McCorquodale, Charles, The Connoisseur, p. 237
- Pictures by the Old Masters belonging to Charles Butler, Esq. Connaught Place, 1909, no. 88
- Valentiner, Wilhelm R.; and Durr Friedley, The Ritz Lydig Collection, 1913, no. 5 p. xii, 6
- Poore, Dudley, The Arts, 1923, p. 410
- Coor, Gertrude, Neroccio de' Landi 1447-1500, 1961, no. 28, fig. 2 p. 17
- Boskovitis, Miklos, Brown, David Alan, et al., Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century, 2003, p. 540
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. D38 p. 444
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