Madonna Enthroned (from a ten-part altarpiece)

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Madonna Enthroned (from a ten-part altarpiece)

Artist Lorenzo Monaco (Italian, ca.1375-1423/24)

Place of OriginFlorence, Italy

Dateabout 1390-1400

Dimensions68 × 29 3/8 × 4 1/4 in. (172.7 × 74.6 × 10.8 cm)

Mediumtempera and gold on wood panel

ClassificationPaintings

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

Object number

1976.22

On View

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

Label TextMade with expensive materials like gold leaf and blue pigment from powdered lapis lazuli (a semiprecious stone), this image of the Virgin Mary and infant Christ formed the center of a large altarpiece. It was probably painted for a chapel altar in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. Altarpieces depicted holy figures or scenes from the Bible that inspired and focused Christian devotion. The inscription at the base of the mostly original frame is from a Latin hymn: “O Heaven’s glorious mistress, enthroned above the starry sky, who provides to thy own Creator…” Lorenzo, a monk (“Monaco”), was the most sought-after painter in Florence of his day. Such details as the tender relationship between mother and child, the rich color, the transparent gauze of Christ’s shirt, and Mary’s elaborate rose wreath halo explain Lorenzo’s fame. [image of altarpiece reconstruction] Reconstruction of probable appearance of original altarpiece. The four panels of standing saints are in the Gallerie Nazionali, Florence, the panels in the lower register (the predella) are in, l. to r.: private collection; The Art Gallery, Leicester; Gemäldegalerie, Berlin; and the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. Reconstruction courtesy of Donald Garstang, P. & D. Colgnaghi and Co., Ltd., London.Published ReferencesZeri, F., "Investigations into the Early Period of Lorenzo Monaco, II" Burlington Magazine, CVII, January 1965, pp. 4-11, figs. I, II (detail).

Bellosi, L., "Da Spinello a Lorenzo Monaco," Paragone, no. 187, 1965, p. 37 (as "by this remarkable anonymous master").

Gonzalez-Palacios, A., "Indagini su Lorenczo Monaco," Paragone, no. 241, March 1970, p. 28.

Boskovitz, M., Pittura fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento, 1370-1400, Floernce, 1975, pp. 135, 349, pl. VI (as Lorenzo Monaco, 1395-1400, but notes Bellosi's placing of it near the Straus Master).

Zeri, F., Italian Paintings in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 1976, I, pp. 26-27.

The Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 98-99, pl. 1.

"La Chronique des Arts," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 89, no. 1298, March 1977, repr. p. 43, no. 171.

Schulze, Franz, "A Consistently Discriminating Connoisseurship," Art News, vol. 76, no. 4, April 1977, p. 67, repr. p. 64.

Teuffel, Christa Gardner von, "Discovery: a Predella Panel by Lorenzo Monaco," Sotheby's Preview, no. May/June 1988, p. 8, repr.

Sotheby's, London, Old Master Paintings, July 6, 1988, p. 14 (not in sale).

Garstang, D., ed., Gothic to Renaissance, European Painting 1300-1600, P.&D. Colnaghi & Co., Ltd., London and New York, 1988, in no. 4, p. 64.

Eisenberg, Marvin, Lorenzo Monaco, Princeton, 1989, pp. 186, 187, 200, 206, [243] fig. 217 (as Madonna Enthroned).

Boskovitz, M., Frühe Italienische Malerei, Gemäldegalerie Berlin, 1989, pp. 93, 97.

Freuler, G., in Master Paintings, 1400-1800, London, P.&D. Colnaghi, 1993, p. 13 (2).

Kanter, L.B., Review of Eisenberg, "Lorenzo Monaco," Burlington Magazine, September 1993, p. 633.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 59, repr. (col.).

Duncan, Sally Anne, Otto Wittmann: Museum Man for All Seasons, Toledo, 2001, repr. (col.) p. 20.

Putney, Richard H., Medieval Art, Medieval People: The Cloister Gallery of the Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 2002, p. 40, repr. (col.) fig. 34.

Tartuferi, Angelo, and Daniela Parenti, Lorenzo Monaco: Guida Alla Mostra (A Guide to the Exhibition), Firenze, Giunti Editore S.P.A., 2006, repr. (col.) p. 26, fig. A.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, pp. 114-15, repr. (col.) and (det.).

Collier, Carly, "A Forgotten Collector of Early Italian Art: Horatio Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford", The Burlington Magazine, 2011, p. 516-517, repr. (col.) fig. 5.

Exhibition HistoryNew York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Grand Gallery, 1974, no. 30, repr. (col.) p. 36.

Florence, Galleria dell'Accademia, Lorenzo Monaco: a Bridge from Giotto's Heritage to the Renaissance, 2006, no. 8a, pp. 120-1, 126-7, repr. (col.) p. 120 and 121.