Madona s dieťaťom

The iconographic type of the Madonna half-figure became widespread in Europe owing to the transformation of the Theotokos („Mother of God“) icon by Italian painters. The image in the Bratislava City Gallery begins to liberate itself from the awkwardness of a liturgical object and aspires towards a more convincing solution of autonomous art; its viewer is to be found in the realm of private devotion. This function may be deduced not only from the placing of the Madonna in an architecturally defined space with deep landscape views, but also from the expression of both figures. It is rather lyrical, with Mary gazing at her child, who is apparently absent-mindedly playing with a coral necklace. An important role in their relationship is formed by the flesh tones, painted in the same way and accentuated by delicate glazes.These flesh tones also allow us to identify, within the markedly damaged structure of the original painting, a detail of Mary’s uncovered breast – a ‚folk‘ motif, and popular from the 14th century especially in Italy, where the Franciscan movement became widespread. Furthermore, the light flesh tone is part of a key message of the painting; the body of the baby Jesus, only lightly covered with a transparent veil, emphasised the cult of the Eucharist and the Feast of Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ).

 In view of the eclectic style, the artistic and geographical provenance of the painting remains uncertain. While Grajciarová (1990) places the artist’s training in the north of Italy, Glatz (1999) prefers a Transalpine (German -Netherlandish) origin of the painting. In the absence of further dates concerning the provenance or method of production, it is difficult to resolve this issue. An Italian source is supported by the iconography of the Nursing Madonna as well as by, for instance, the light, plastically modelled flesh tone and a colour palette of little contrast. However, a source north of the Alps (perhaps Augsburg) is suggested by such glazing effects as Mary’s transparent veil; but the more significant motifs of northern ‚descriptive realism‘ are lacking. 

Zuzana Ludiková ● LUDIKOVÁ, Zuzana - BURAN, Dušan. Talianska maľba = Italian Painting. Bratislava : Slovenská národná galéria, 2013. 242 strán. ISBN 9788080591748.