Description
The city-state of Florence was a major center for the artistic and cultural development known as the Renaissance, a flourishing of arts and culture marked by an interest in classical antiquity. Bartolomeo’s altarpiece displays many emblematic features of this rebirth, as the earlier Gothic style was abandoned in favor of new trends toward naturalism: a blue sky replaces the gold backgrounds of earlier paintings, and the figures are rendered with more individualism and threedimensionality.
Notice the plump arms and legs of the baby Jesus and how he stands unsteadily on his mother’s lap —characteristic of a small child. Surrounding the Virgin and child are saints, each accompanied by their symbolic attribute. To the left of the Virgin is Saint John the Evangelist; his attribute —the eagle—peers out from behind his vibrant red cloak. To the right of the Virgin stands Saint Jerome, with his distinctive red cardinal’s hat. The two saints kneeling on either side of the throne are particularly connected to the women’s convent for which this altarpiece was commissioned. Saint Benedict, whose teachings the nuns followed, kneels beneath Saint John, accompanied by a book and a bundle of rods. Saint Romauld, the founder of the convent’s order, kneels to the right of the Virgin accompanied by a model of a church.
Details
- Work Date:
- 1498
- Dimensions:
- Frame: 63 1/4 in x 59 1/2 in; 160.7 cm x 151.1 cm; Panel: 57 in x 57 1/2 in; 144.8 cm x 146.1 cm
- Medium:
- Tempera on panel