The Virgin and Child

Artist Simone Martini (Italian, about 1284 - 1344)

Formerly attributed to Lippo Memmi (Italian, active 1317 - 1350)

Dateca. 1325-1330

MediumTempera and gold leaf on wood panel

DimensionsOverall: 18 7/8 × 15 3/8 inches (47.94 × 39.04 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Object numberF61-62

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionHalf-length, somber Madonna clothed in a black robe over the head and shoulders; the robe is embroidered with gold leaves. The Madonna holds the Child in her left arm. The Child holds a scroll in His left hand. Both figures have elaborate gold halos. In two medallions at the upper left and right are the Bishop Saint and St. John the Baptist.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Exhibition of Art Treasures for America from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., December 10, 1961-February 4, 1962, no. 67.

Metal of Honor: Gold from SImone Martini to Contemporary Art, Isaebella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA, October 13-January 16, 2022-2023.

Gallery Label

This Sienese painting retains some of the stiffness of Byzantine art, especially in the formal frontality of the image. Typically Gothic, however, is the tenderness displayed between Virgin and Child. Lippo Memmi's Byzantine-inspired gold-leaf background and opaque tempera color make an interesting comparison with some of their other oil panels, painted over a century later. With the advent of oil painting in Flanders, artists could achieve more natural atmospheric effects and softened contours as well as rich, jewel-like color through the application of layered veils of translucent, oil-based glazes.

Provenance

Henri Simon, Bordeaux;

With Wildenstein and Co., New York, by April 1940-December 31, 1942 [1];

Purchased from Wildenstein by Samuel H. Kress (1863-1955), New York, December 31, 1942-1961;

His gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1961.

NOTES:

[1] See email from Eliot Rowlands, Wildenstein and Co., June 15, 2015, NAMA curatorial files.

Published References

Alfred M. Frankfurter, The Kress Collection in the National Gallery (Washington, D.C.: The Art Foundation, 1944), 21, (repro.).

Paintings and Sculpture form the Kress Collection (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1945), 18, (repro.).

Italian Paintings (New York: Wildenstein, 1947), unpaginated.

“Masters’ Art on View: Public Display of Kress Gift Opens at Nelson Gallery” (October 31, 1952), clipping, NAMA curatorial files.

William E. Suida, Catalogue of The Samuel H. Kress Collection of Italian Paintings and Sculptures: The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Arkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1952), 8, 9, (repro.).

Dorothy C. Shorr, The Christ Child in Devotional Images in Italy During the XIV Century (New York: George Wittenborn, 1954), 116, 122, 125, (repro.).

T.B. Hess, “Culture as the Great American Dream,” Art News 60 (1961): 36

Exhibition of Art Treasures for America from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1961), unpaginated.

Fern Rusk Shapley, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century (London: Phaidon, 1966), 49-50, (repro.).

Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central Italian and North Italian Schools, vol. 1 (London: Phaidon, 1968), 269.

Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972), 141, 312, 589.

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 76, (repro.).

Cristina De Benedictis, La pittura senese, 1330-1370 (Florence: Salimbeni libreria editrice, 1979), 60n24, 92.

Enzo Carli, La pittura senese del trecento (Milan: Electa, 1981), 121.

Alessandro Bagnoli and Luciano Bellosi, eds., Simone Martini e “chompagni,” exh. cat. (Siena: Pinacotèca Nazionale, 1985), 92.

Miklós Boskovits, “Sul trittico di Simone Martini e di Lippo Memmi,” Arte Cristiana 74 (1986): 76n33, 78, (repro.), as by Simone Martini.

Letters from Hayden B.J. Maginnis to Eliot Rowlands, October 29, 1988, and January 12, 1989, NAMA curatorial files, as by Lippo Memmi and workshop.

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 135, (repro.).

Eliot W. Rowlands, The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Italian Paintings, 1300-1800 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 33-39, (repro).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.