Paolo Uccello, Italian, c.1397-1475
Title: The Virgin and Child
Date: c.1435-1440
Medium: Tempera on wood panel
Dimensions:
58 x 37 cm
Credit Line: Purchased, 1909
Object Number: NGI.603
DescriptionUccello entered the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti at a young age but little is known of his early activity. Between 1425 and 1430, he is recorded in Venice working as a mosaicist. On his return to Florence, he was deeply impressed by the new artistic climate of the city. He started to explore the possibilities offered by newly developed theories on perspective and became fascinated with mathematics and geometry.
This painting demonstrates Uccello’s intellectual preoccupations during that period. The Virgin stands calmly within a shell-headed niche. She holds the lively figure of the Christ Child, who seems ready to spring forth from the picture and into the viewers’ space. His toes rest upon a painted border that is designed to give the illusion of a gold frame. This work is one of very few paintings by Uccello to survive.
This painting demonstrates Uccello’s intellectual preoccupations during that period. The Virgin stands calmly within a shell-headed niche. She holds the lively figure of the Christ Child, who seems ready to spring forth from the picture and into the viewers’ space. His toes rest upon a painted border that is designed to give the illusion of a gold frame. This work is one of very few paintings by Uccello to survive.
ProvenanceCollection Bardini, London; London, 5 June 1899, Bardini sale, lot 357; Butler; Mr R. Langton Douglas; purchased, Mr R. Langton Douglas, 1909
Exhibition HistoryUmbrian Exhibition, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1909
Mostra di quattro maestri del primo Rinascimento, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1954
Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October - December 1964
Masaccio e le origini del Rinascimento, Casa Masaccio, San Giovanni Valdarno, 20 September 2002 - 26 January 2003
Donatello, or the Renaissance: Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi: 19 March - 31 July 2022
Mostra di quattro maestri del primo Rinascimento, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1954
Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October - December 1964
Masaccio e le origini del Rinascimento, Casa Masaccio, San Giovanni Valdarno, 20 September 2002 - 26 January 2003
Donatello, or the Renaissance: Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi: 19 March - 31 July 2022
Label TextThis animated painting of the Virgin and Child illustrates Uccello’s deep interest in theories of linear perspective. Such theories were famously outlined by the architect Leon Battista Alberti in his book Della Pittura (1435). Uccello became obsessed with learning how to create the illusion of a three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. Here, the Virgin is shown standing in a shell-shaped niche. She holds a lively Christ Child, who appears ready to spring out of the picture space towards the viewer: his knee and toes rest on the edge of a false, painted frame.