Brave Fine Art has dated this piece to the 17th Century.
The Virgin’s dark-blue mantle, embroidered with gold thread and marked by three stars, symbols of her perpetual virginity, encloses the Christ Child, who raises His hand in benediction while gazing directly at the viewer.
Probably executed around 1630, the work reflects a moment when artists sought to reconcile the inherited grandeur of Renaissance sacred art with the immediacy of post-Tridentine piety. Such paintings were particularly favoured in the central regions of Italy, where small churches and confraternities continued to commission luminous images of the Virgin as ‘mediatrix’ and ‘intercessor’.
Created for a chapel or modest altar, the panel would have glowed by candlelight, its gold surface transforming devotional space into a vision of celestial radiance. It stands as a testament to faith’s continuity through changing times - an image both ancient in form and vividly human in spirit.
Held in a 20th-century giltwood frame with a simple, flat profile and slender raised sight edge.
Medium: Oil and gilt on canvas
Overall size: 36” x 49” / 92cm x 125cm
Year of creation: c. 1630
Provenance: Private collection, Italy.
Condition: Cleaned. Revarnished. Canvas relined. Faint stretcher marks. Craquelure throughout. The paint layer is stable. Later stretcher. Historic repairs to the gilding. Frame in good condition with minor age-related wear.
Our reference: BRV2216
Brave Fine Art has dated this piece to the 17th Century.
Exquisite antique paintings that capture the imagination.
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17th-century Central Italian School, the Madonna & Child, Old Master Oil Painting
