Madonna and Child with Saint John

Artist Francesco Pesellino (Italian, 1422-1457)

Place of OriginItaly

Dateabout 1455

Dimensions33 3/4 × 26 3/8 × 1 1/2 in. (85.7 × 67 × 3.8 cm)

MediumTempera on wood panel

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1944.34

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 19

Collections

Paintings

Published ReferencesExhibition of Works by Old Masters, London, Royal Academy, 1875, no. 185, p. 20.

Harck, F., "Quadri di maestri Italiani in possesso di privati a Berlino," Archivo storico dell'arte, II, 1889, p. 205.

Mackowsky, H., Kunstwerken des Mittelalters und der Renaissance auf Berliner Privatbesitz, Berlin, Kaiser Friedrich Museum, 1899, p. 38, pl. vii.

Bode, W., Die Sammlung Oscar Hainauer, Berlin, 1897, pp. 14-15, repr.; London, 1906, p. 67, no. 45.

Logan, M., "Compagno di Pesellino et quelques peintures de l'ecole," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, XXVI, July 1901, pp. 33-34, repr.

Weisbach, W., Francesco Pesellino und die Romantik der Renaissance, Berlin, 1901, p. 114.

Mather, F. J., "Pictures in the Robert Hoe Collection," Burlington Magazine, XVII, Aug. 1910, p. 315, fig. 1.

Jaccaci, A. F., Catalogue of the Valuable Art Property Collected by the Late Robert Hoe, New York, 1911, no. 97, repr.

American Art Annual, IX, 1911, p. 79 (as Follower of Lippi).

Berenson, Bernard, Catalogue of the Friedsam Collection (Metropolitan), 1923, p. 43, (unpublished).

Valentiner, W., Early Italian Paintings, New York, Duveen, 1926, no. 10, repr.

Fogg Art Museum Report for the Year 1926-1927, Harvard University, Fogg Museum of Art, 1927, p. 11.

Forbes, E. W., Collection of Mediaeval and Renaissance Paintings, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 1927, pp. 71, 72.

Hendy, Philip H., "Pesellino," Burlington Magazine, LIII, Aug. 1928, pp. 68-73, pl. II a.

Van Marle, Raimond, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, The Hague, X, 1928, pp. 512-513; XIII, 1931, p. 447.

Mackowsky, H., "The Masters of the 'Pesellino Trinity'," Burlington Magazine, LVII, Nov. 1930, p. 218.

Hendy, P. H., The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Catalogue of the Exhibited Paintings and Drawings, Boston, 1931, pp. 253, 259.

Berenson, B., "Quadri senza casa: Il quattrocento Fiorentino, II," Dedalo, III, Sep. 1932, p. 671, repr. p. 673.

Berenson, B., Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Oxford, 1932, p. 443.

Venturi, L., Italian Paintings in America, New York, 1933, II, no. 227, repr.

Masterpieces of Art: Official Souvenir Guide and Picturebook, Exhibition at the New York World's Fair, 1939, New York, Art News, 1939, no. 280, repr. pl. 16.

Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, 1940, p. 10, repr. p. 2.

Art Digest, vol. 19, p. 15, January 1, 1945, repr.

Art News, vol. 43, January 1, 1945, p. 6, repr. (col.).

Illustrated London News, vol. 207, Christmas Number, 1945, repr. (col.), p. 11.

(Godwin, Blake-More), "Pesellino's Masterpieces," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 110, Dec. 1945, unpaginated.

Berenson, B., The Italian Painters of the Renaissance, New York, 1952, p. 161.

Godwin, Molly Ohl, Capolavori italiani al "Toledo Museum of Art," Le Vie Del Mondon, vol. 14, 1952, p. 1155, repr. p. 1149.

Godwin, Molly Ohl, "Toledo Museum of Art: Post-war Additions," Connoisseur, vol. 136, no. 548, October 1955, pp. 133-140, repr. p. 136.

Toledo Museum News, New Series, vol. 4, no. 1, Winter, 1961, (also published as Details, European Paintings), p. 7, repr.

A Guide to the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1966, repr.

Faison, S. Lane, Jr., "From Lorenzo Monaco to Mattia Preti," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 444, repr. (col.) pl. VIII, p. 447.

Smithsonian Institution, The Armand Hammer Collection, Washington, D. C., 1970, mentioned in catalogue entry no. 1.

Zeri, F., and E. Gardner, Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Florentine School, New York, 1971, p. 107.

Fredericksen, B., and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Collections, Cambridge (Mass.), 1972, p. 162.

Hendy, P. H., European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2nd ed., Boston, 1974, pp. 176, 180.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 124-125, pl. 5, color pl. I.

The Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 28 and 29.

Steinberg, Leo, The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion, New York, 1983, fig. 172.

Norton, Thomas E., 100 Years of Collecting in America: the Story of Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 1984, p. 71, repr.

Bernard, Bruce, The Queen of Heaven, London, 1987, p. 231, pl. 60 (col.).

Turley, Robert, Humanities: the Western Creative Heritage, a Student Handbook, Dubuque, 1991, pl. VI.

Koch-Hillebrecht, Manfred, Museen in den USA: Gemalde, Munich, 1992, p. 235, repr. (col.).

Brown, David Alan, "Bode and Berenson: Berlin and Boston," Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, N. F., Bd. 38, 1996, pp. 102-103, fig. 4, p. 104.

Wheeler, Marion, Her Face: Images of the Virgin Mary in Art, Cobb, CA, 1998, repr. p. 73 (det., col.), p. 149.

Garnett, Oliver, "The Letters and Collection of William Grahm-Pre-Raphaelite Patron and Pre-Raphael Collector," Walpole Society, vol. 62, 2000, pp. 153, 328, fig. 200.

Campbell, Stephen J. and Stephen J. Milner, eds., Artistic Exchange and Cultural Translation in the Italian Renaissance City, Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 39, 40, 52, 53, 65, n. 5, 69, n. 45, 70, n. 47 & 51, 72 n. 66, fig. 9, p. 43.

Stehlke, Carl Brandon, Italian Paintings 1250-1450 in the John G. Johnson Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2004, p. 367.

Holmes, Megan, "Miraculous Images in Renaissance Florence," Art History, vol. 34, no. 3, June 2011, p. 438, repr. (col.) p. 439.

Marciari, John, Italian, Spanish, and French Paintings: Before 1859, in the San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, San Diego Museum of Art, 2015, p. 68, repr. (col.) p. 69, fig. 9.2.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Works by Old Masters, 1875, no. 185.

Berlin, Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Kunstwerken des Mittelalters und der Renaissance auf Berliner Privatbesitz, 1898.

New York, Duveen, Early Italian Paintings, 1924, no. 10.

Cambridge, Fogg Museum of Art, 1927.

New York World's Fair, Masterpieces of Art, 1939, no. 280.

San Francisco, Golden Gate International Exposition, 1940.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Diamond Jubilee Celebration, 1950-1951.

Label TextBecause of the abundant gold, the cost of this panel would have been considerable. It was likely displayed in a home as a precious object and an aid to personal devotion. A gold background symbolized the light of Heaven, so was common for devotional images. Hammered to paper thinness, gold leaf was adhered to the panel with reddish clay (bole), then “punched” and burnished with tools to create designs, such as the rays of the halos and the flowered pattern of the curtains. Pesellino used powdered gold (even more expensive than gold leaf) to paint the detail on Mary’s cloak. Despite the angels and the otherworldly setting, Pesellino’s graceful, young Madonna and chubby, curly-haired infant Jesus—along with Jesus’ youthful cousin John the Baptist, patron saint of Florence—seem more approachable and appealingly human than some earlier Virgin and Child images.