Painting by Leonardo da Vinci
The Benois Madonna
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Artist
| Leonardo da Vinci
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Year
| c.
1478?1480
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Medium
| Oil on canvas
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Dimensions
| 49.5 cm × 33 cm (19.5 in × 13 in)
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Location
| Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
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The
Benois Madonna
, otherwise known as the
Madonna and Child with Flowers
, is a painting by the
Italian Renaissance
master
Leonardo da Vinci
in the
Hermitage Museum
,
Saint Petersburg
. One of two Madonnas begun by Leonardo in October 1478, it was completed
c.
1478?1480; the other was the
Madonna of the Carnation
, now in the
Alte Pinakothek
,
Munich
.
History
[
edit
]
It is likely that the
Benois Madonna
was the first work painted by Leonardo independently from his master
Andrea del Verrocchio
. Two of Leonardo's preliminary sketches for this work are in the
British Museum
,
[1]
although the painting was probably
overpainted
by other hands.
[2]
The preliminary sketches and the painting itself suggest that Leonardo was concentrating on the idea of sight and perspective.
[a]
The child is thought to be guiding his mother's hands into his central vision.
[3]
The
Benois Madonna
has proved to be one of Leonardo's most popular works. It was extensively copied by young painters, including
Raphael
in his
Madonna of the Pinks
in the
National Gallery
, London.
For centuries, the painting was presumed to have been lost, then found, then lost, then found, then lost. It had in fact been acquired in
Italy
by the Russian artillery general and art connoisseur
Aleksei Ivanovich Korsakov
[
ru
]
(1751?1821) in the 1790s.
[b]
[4]
Upon Korsakov's death, his son sold it for the sum of 1,400 roubles to the
Astrakhan
fishing merchant Alexander Petrovich Sapozhnikov, who had his own art gallery; it was then passed on to his wealthy philanthropist son Alexander Alexendrovich Sapozhnikov (1827?1887). Finally, when his daughter Maria Sapozhnikova (1858?1938) married the architect
Leon Benois
(1856?1928), the painting became part of the inheritance of the Benois family.
In 1909, the painting was sensationally exhibited in
Saint Petersburg
as part of the Benois collection. In 1912, the Benois family considered selling the painting and requested an appraisal from the London art dealer
Joseph Duveen
, who gave an evaluation of 500,000 francs. The art historian
Bernard Berenson
made disparaging comments about the painting, raising doubts about its authenticity:
[5]
One unhappy day I was called to see the 'Benois Madonna'. I found myself confronted by a young woman with a bald forehead and puffed cheeks, a toothless smile, blear eyes, and a furrowed throat. The uncanny, anile apparition plays with a child who looks like a hollow mask fixed on inflated body and limbs. The hands are wretched, the folds purposeless and fussy, the color like whey. And yet I had to acknowledge that this painful affair was the work of Leonardo da Vinci. It was hard, but the effort freed me, and the indignation I felt gave me the resolution to proclaim my freedom.
Despite these wrangles about attribution, however, the
Benois Madonna
was eventually sold to the Imperial
Hermitage Museum
in 1914 for a
record amount
.
[6]
The purchase was made by
Ernst Friedrich von Liphart
,
[c]
then curator of paintings at the Hermitage, who identified da Vinci as the artist. The payments were made in installments, continuing even after the 1917
October Revolution
.
[7]
[8]
Since 1914 the painting has been exhibited in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.
Description and interpretation
[
edit
]
This small painting shows a dark room with the Virgin seated on a bench with her Child outstretched on her lap. Her young rounded face is lively; she is clothed in an olive and brown raiment, with brown and blue underwear covering her knees. The amply proportioned Christ Child grasps a cruciform sprig of flowers which the Virgin is holding. The faces of the vividly coloured figures are crowned with delicately gilded haloes. In an otherwise dark interior, a double-arched aperture gives a glimpse on to pale blue skies.
[4]
In Renaissance Florence, artistic portrayals of the Madonna often used Christian symbolism to suggest foreknowledge of the
Crucifixion
? for example, the
goldfinch
plucking Christ's thorns from his crown. For the
Benois Madonna
, the symbol is a flowering sprig, in the form of a
crucifix
, held by the Virgin. As
Feinberg (2011)
suggests, in the
Benois Madonna
Leonardo attempted to rationalize between the mysteries of 'sight' and 'insight': "The child of the
Benois Madonna
has still not responded to the distinctly cruciform shape of the flower [...] because he cannot see it clearly. Once that happens, the child's hazy curiosity could [...] lead to foresight of his sacrifice". Notwithstanding its solemn motif, the painting represents one of the "most joyous and youthful depiction of Mary in Renaissance art ... she seems to be speaking or laughing, playfully engaged with her child, her radiant vitality accentuated through Leonardo’s deliberate complications of posture and drapery".
[3]
[9]
[10]
-
-
Study for the Madonna of the Cat, British Museum (recto)
-
Study for Child with Cat, British Museum
-
Study for Child with Cat, British Museum
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Footnotes
- ^
At that time it was thought that alien eyes
emitted rays to cause vision
with a central beam being the most important.
- ^
Descending from a medieval noble family in
Novgorod
, Korsakov was an artillery general and senator under
Paul I
and
Alexander I
. Elected in 1794 as an Honorary Member of the
Russian Academy of Arts
for "knowledge, love and respect of honourable arts", his later years in Saint Peterburg were devoted to collecting rare
objets d'art
, sculptures and paintings.
- ^
Liphart's father, Baron
Karl Eduard von Liphart
from Estonia, was an expert on art history. He accompanied his son in the 1860s during their travels to Florence. He disinherited his son in 1873 following his conversion to Catholicism and his subsequent marriage to a Florentine lady.
Citations
- ^
A. E. Popham and P. Pouncey, 'Italian drawings in the BM, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries', London, 1950, I, no. 100, II, pls. XCIV, XCV
[1]
- ^
Wallace, Robert (1966).
The World of Leonardo: 1452?1519
. New York: Time-Life Books. p. 185.
- ^
a
b
Feinberg, Larry J. (29 August 2011).
"
The
Benois Madonna
and Continued Meditations on the Theme of Sight
"
.
The young Leonardo: art and life in fifteenth-century Florence
. New York:
Cambridge University Press
. pp. 83?86.
ISBN
978-1107002395
.
(subscription required)
- ^
a
b
Palmer, Allison Lee (2019).
Leonardo da Vinci: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works
.
Rowman & Littlefield
. pp. 21?22.
ISBN
9781538119778
.
- ^
Samuels, Ernest
; Samuels, Jayne Newcomer (1987).
Bernard Berenson, the making of a legend
. Belknap Press. p. 216.
ISBN
0674067797
.
- ^
McWhirter, Norris; McWhirter, Ross (1972).
Guinness Book of World Records
. Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. p. 177.
ISBN
0-8069-0004-0
. Retrieved
March 5,
2024
– via
Internet Archive
.
- ^
Directors of the Imperial Hermitage
Archived
February 27, 2014, at the
Wayback Machine
, Hermitage Museum, retrieved 3 January 2014
- ^
Baron Ernst Friedrich von Liphart
Archived
2013-12-30 at
archive.today
, RusArtNet.com, retrieved 31 December 2013
- ^
Feinberg, Larry J. (2011a).
"
The
Madonna of the Cat"
.
The young Leonardo: art and life in fifteenth-century Florence
. New York:
Cambridge University Press
. pp. 89?97.
ISBN
978-1107002395
.
- ^
Clark, Kenneth
(1988).
Leonardo da Vinci: An Account of his development as an Artist
. Pelican (Revised ed.).
Penguin Books
. pp. 30?33.
ISBN
978-0-141-98237-3
.
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Major works
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Lost works
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Sculptures
| |
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Works on paper
| Studies for the
Virgin of the Rocks
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Studies for the
Last Supper
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Studies for the Louvre
Saint Anne
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Manuscripts
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Other projects
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Leonardeschi
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Museums
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Related
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- ? Collaboration
- ?? Possible collaboration
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