(Venice 1442/53–1503/05)
Madonna and Child,
tempera and oil on panel, 56.5 x 40.7 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection Hans Meyer, Zurich, before 1891;
Collection Jost Meyer-am-Rhyn (1853-1898), Luzern;
Private collection, Switzerland

We are grateful to Filippo Todini for suggesting the attribution and for his help in cataloguing the present painting.

The Madonna is depicted half-length in an interior behind a marble ledge; she is in the act of embracing the Child seated on a precious ornate green velvet pillow hemmed in gold and bearing tassels. The figures stand out with great emphasis against the shadowy background of the room with an arched window on the left revealing a glimpse of the landscape. The present painting was most probably executed for a private patron.

The present picture appears to be previously unknown to scholars and is an important addition to the artist´s oeuvre.
The work dates from the artist’s early maturity, shortly after 1480, when Alvise left behind the influence of his early training in the workshop of his father Antonio and uncle Bartolomeo, which was inspired by models derived from Squarcione and the young Mantegna. Moving away from this style, he created an independent and original style, now fully Renaissance in manner, which places him alongside Giovanni Bellini as one of the greatest interpreters of Venetian painting during the second half of the 15th century.

In the figures of both the Madonna and the Child, there are very obvious affinities, in terms of brushwork and type, with the large altarpiece for San Francesco, Treviso, depicting the Madonna and Child enthroned with Saints, now in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice (no. 607), signed and dated 1480. In this alterpiece the graphic definition of the contours and drapery is accompanied by a marked plastic relief offering the first evidence of Alvise Vivarini’s interest in the influence of Antonello da Messina on Venetian painting (see R. Pallucchini, I Vivarini, Venice 1962, pp. 59-60; J. Steer, Alvise Vivarini: his art and influence, Cambridge 1982, p. 24 et seq.). The layout of the composition reappears with variations in other paintings from this period, such as the central panel of the triptych signed and dated 1485 in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples, and the Madonna and Child (no. 649) in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino. In these panels, we find the same tendency towards painting geometrical shapes (a direct derivation from Antonello da Messina) together with a striving for classical regularity in the drawing that emerges in parallel with contemporary developments in Bellini’s style. Also typical of Alvise is the technical execution, with the figures outlined on the panel with incisions during the preparation, and the meticulous drawing of details effected with a stylus that can be discerned beneath the layers of paint.

However, the closest relationship is with the altarpiece of the Madonna and Child enthroned, signed and dated 1483, in the church of Sant’Andrea in Barletta (see J. Steer, op. cit., p.34; C. Gelao, I Vivarini. Lo Splendore della Pittura tra Gotico e Rinascimento, exhibition catalogue, Venice 2016, pp. 150-51), which marks the culmination of Alvise’s influence derived from Antonello’s models. The monumental blocking of the volumes, rendered in some passages similar to pure geometric solids, is virtually the same as in Antonello, as is the light that warms the colour laid in compact masses, the enveloping modelling realised by means of a strong and fluid line, and the depiction of the drapery as well as the physical types of the figures. It should also be noted that there is an almost identical green cushion trimmed with gold and tassels, which is a precise citation from the famous Benson Madonna by Antonello in the National Gallery, Washington, from which Vivarini perhaps also drew inspiration for the three-quarter pose of the Virgin’s head.

The physiognomy of the Child, in which the planes of the face seem almost to break down into prismatic sections accentuating the study of volume, is a direct re-use of the Child in the central fragment of the San Cassiano Altarpiece of Venice, conserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The work can be seen as documentary importance, illustrating the period when Alvise Vivarini was most influenced by Antonello da Messina. It can be argued that it is far more significant in this sense than the Madonna in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (No. 37,535) and in the collection of Conte Cesare Piovene of Vicenza (Pallucchini, op. cit., p. 58), which were hitherto considered among the best pictures of this period in the artist’s career.

Another noteworthy feature is the uncommon idea of the foreshortened windowsill, which accentuates the prominence of the forms and the effect of depth. The same motif can be found, but in a less pronounced and evident manner, in some works by Giovanni Bellini or his workshop (London, National Gallery NG 3913; Paris, Louvre, MI 23; Castle Ashby, Marquess of Northampton). It would later also be copied by Jacopo da Valenza in some of his repetitive derivations after Alvise (Rovigo, Accademia dei Concordi; Treviso, Museo Civico; Venice, Santa Maria della Salute, etc.).

In the Fototeca Federico Zeri (no. 25253, 0284, Inv. 62292) under the name of Alvise Vivarini, there is a photograph of a picture of a Madonna and Child shown against a dark background, which comes from London and in 1961 belonged to the Galleria Salocchi in Florence and the Galleria Sestieri in Rome. It is a literal repetition of this painting, with few variations, but of a less quality.