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©
Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on loan with the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC)
Francesco di Giorgio Martini

The virgin and the Child with Saint Catherine of Siena and Angels

ca. 1490
Mixed media on panel.
62 x 42 cm
Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on deposit with the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC)
Inv. no.
149
(
1965.8
)
Not on display
  • Level 2 Permanent Collection
  • Level 1 Permanent Collection
  • Level 0 Carmen Thyssen Collection and Temporary exhibition rooms
  • Level -1 Temporary exhibition rooms, Conference room and EducaThyssen workshop
Level 2
Permanent Collection
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 13 15 16 17 18 22 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Recommended start of the visitClassical rooms
1 14th Century. Early Italian Painting 2 15th Century. German and Spanish Painting 3 15th Century. Early Netherlandish Painting 4 15th Century. Italian Painting 5 15th and 16th Centuries. Renaissance Portraiture 6 16th Century. Villahermosa Gallery 7 16th Century. Italian Painting 8 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 9 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 10 16th Century. Netherlandish Painting 11 Tiziano, Tintoretto, Bassano and  El Greco 12 17th Century. Caravaggio and Baroque Painting 13 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 14 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 15 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 16 18th Century. Italian Painting 17 18th Century. Italian Painting 18 18th Century. Italian Painting 19 Classical rooms 20 Classical rooms 21 Classical rooms 22 18th Century. Italian Painting 23 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 24 18th Century. French and English Painting 25 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Scenes of Daily Life and Interiors 26 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 27 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Portrait 28 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 29 19th Century. European Painting. Goya and Romanticism  
Level 1
Permanent Collection
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Postpop rooms Rodin room
30 18th and 19th Centuries. Transatlantic Relations 31 19th Century. American Landscape and Environmental Awareness 32 19th Century. American Landscape and Urban Life 33 Recovering the ligth. Restoration of Waterloo Bridge, by André Derain 34 20th Century. Expressionist Landscapes 35 20th Century. Expressionist Portraits 36 20th Century. The Language of the Body 37 20th Century. Urban unrest 38 20th Century. Flowers 39 20th Century. Pioneers of abstraction 40 20th Century. Popular flavor 41 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition I 42 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition II 43 20th Century. Abstract Utopias 44 20th Century. Dada and Surrealism 45 20th Century. Interwar Realisms 46 20th Century. American Abstraction I 48 20th Century. Post-ward American Art 49 20th Century. Post-ward European Figurative Art 50 20th Century. Informalisms 51 20th Century. Homo Ludens 52 20th Century. Pop Art 53 Postpop rooms 54 Postpop rooms 55 Postpop rooms 56 Postpop rooms Rodin Exhibition room
Level 0
Carmen Thyssen Collection and Temporary exhibition rooms
A B C D E F G H I J Hall Temporary exhibition rooms Access to Permanent Collection Entrance Access to Carmen Thyssen Collection Paseo del Prado Garden
A 17th and 18th Centuries. Old Masters B 19th Century. North American Landscape C 19th Century. French Naturalist Landscape D 19th Century. Impressionism E 19th Century. Monet and North American Impressionism F 19th Century. Gauguin and Postimpressionism G 19th and 20th Centuries. Neo Impressionism and its Wake H 20th Century. Early Avant-gardes I 20th Century. Between the Wars Painting. Cubism, Abstraction and Surrealism J 20th Century. North American Painting and Others • HALL
Level -1
Temporary exhibition rooms, Conference room and EducaThyssen workshop
Temporary exhibition rooms Conference room EducaThyssen Workshop
The Sienese sculptor and architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini, whom Vasari included in his Lives, was also an illuminator of manuscripts, writer, theoretician and finally a painter, as can be seen in the present panel. Vasari noted that he practised sculpture more as a hobby and a distraction than for other reasons and that he experimented with painting, an art form in which he was never as talented as in sculpture and architecture. According to Vasari, if Francesco di Giorgio had solely devoted himself to sculpture, hisfame would have been eternal. The artist also had time to devote himself to administrative tasks in his native city and from 1480 was a member of the City Council of Siena.

The present panel, which was previously in a private Florentine collection, was unknown until its publication in 1969 in the catalogue of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection with a commentary on the painting by Rudolf Heinemann. The attribution has not been questioned since that date, and there are written arguments in its favour by Federico Zeri and John Pope-Hennessy, set out in a letter by Zeri dated 1973 and now in the Museum’s archive, as well as by Ralph Toledano. The chronology of the work is less secure, however, and the panel has been dated to two different periods in the artist’s career: around 1470 and around 1490. The early date of 1470 was proposed by Heinemann and Toledano, and the former drew attention to models by Neroccio de’Landi used for the figure of Saint Catherine. The late dating of 1490 (Francesco di Giorgio Martini died in 1501) was suggested by Zeri, who detected the influence of Andrea del Verrocchio, particularly in the central group, a feature consistent with the artist’s late style. The painting was acquired for the Collection 1965. In the early1960s it seems to have been in poor condition. According to a report in the Museum’s archive the background had been repainted in black, covering all the cloth now visible behind the figures while the paint surface was not fully adhered to the panel in some areas. The panel was consequently restored in 1964.

The faces of the figures are typical of Francesco di Giorgio: pointed, with pallid, whiteish skin and a chin that emphasises their shape. This is particularly evident in the face of Saint Catherine on the left, holding a lily, whose veil further emphasises this triangular shape. Another typical stylistic feature is the execution of the hands, particularly the fingers, which are fine and elegant. The Virgin’s fingers gently support the Christ Child, while Saint Catherine’s hold the stem of lilies and the Christ Child’s rest delicately on the Virgin’s sleeve.

Mar Borobia
15th Century15th Century - Italian paintingPaintingMixed mediapanel
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Private and/or didactic use
The virgin and the Child with Saint Catherine of Siena and Angels. La Virgen y el Niño con santa Catalina de Siena y ángeles, c. 1490
The virgin and the Child with Saint Catherine of Siena and Angels
Francesco di Giorgio Martini

©

Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on loan with the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC)

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The virgin and the Child with Saint Catherine of Siena and Angels. La Virgen y el Niño con santa Catalina de Siena y ángeles, c. 1490
The virgin and the Child with Saint Catherine of Siena and Angels
Francesco di Giorgio Martini

©

Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on loan with the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC)

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