Madonna with Christ Child

Author: Albert Elen

Giovanni Bellini is known as the Master of the Madonnas, whom he usually represents with the Christ Child in her arms. Dozens of his works have survived. This type of picture introduced in early northern painting, closely related to portraiture, became very popular in Italy in the second half of the fifteenth century – the early Italian Renaissance. She is usually pictured half-length, placed behind a parapet, with or without a landscape background or cloudy sky, sometimes offset against a curtain or a decorated linen or brocade cloth. Unlike Bellini’s great altarpieces with enthroned Virgins surrounded by saints (sacra conversazioni) – often still in their original place in Venetian churches – the Madonnas with only the Christ Child are usually a modest size. In producing these devotional images intended for the private market, the artist was aided by studio assistants, which is why many ‘Belliniesque’ Madonnas are regarded as workshop pieces rather than autograph works.

This small sketch, described in the inventory of the Koenigs Collection as from the school of Padua, is linked to a signed painting by Bellini dating from around 1489, now in Pasadena, as Valentiner (1934) was the first to observe.^[1] With the exception of Tietze/Tietze-Conrat (1944), most authors accept the drawing as by Bellini’s hand. Heinemann (1962) regarded it as a preliminary drawing for the painting, Gibbons (1976) described it as the only autograph drawing by Bellini that is clearly associated with a painting; the basic preliminary drawing would have been sufficient for an assistant to paint the first draft.

At some point, the drawing was probably cut out of a larger sheet with similar images on it, and the upper corners were carelessly cut on the diagonal. The two figures stand behind a parapet indicated with a double pen stroke. As in the painting, the background has been left empty. Both figures are offset against the neutral background with diagonal hatching lines, and extra shading to the right of their heads. A characteristic detail that reinforces the attribution to Bellini is the rendering of the Christ Child’s mouth and chin with two short dashes.^[2] One can imagine that the master made dozens of these swift sketches, as samples of variations on the very popular pictorial theme, but sadly very little of this working material has survived.