The Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist
Giovanni Bellini (Venice 1431/36 – Venice 1516)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1490 - 1499
Materials
Oil on panel
Measurements
826 x 635 mm (32 1/2 x 25 in)
Place of origin
Venice
Order this imageCollection
Tyntesfield, North Somerset
NT 2900062
Summary
Oil painting on panel, The Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist, by Giovanni Bellini (Venice 1431-36 – Venice 1516) and possibly Niccolò Rondinelli (fl. c.1450 - c.1510), signed: IOANNES BELLINVS on a cartellino lower centre right, 1490s. The Madonna and Child looking to the right, with the Christ Child propped up against a pillow in the foreground. Saint John the Baptist kneels in adoration to the right behind a parapet. The head of Saint John is probably by Bellini, but the group of the Madonna and Child is a repetition by an assistant, possibly Niccolò Rondinelli, by whom a version is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam with a landscape background. The group of the Madonna and Child is known in a number of versions by artists in the circle of Bellini, none of which are wholly acceptable as being exclusively by the master himself. The closest version is in the Doria Pamphilij collection, Rome.
Provenance
Purchased by Antony Gibbs (1841-1907) for Tyntesfield from a London dealer in 1880; accepted in lieu of inheritance tax by HM Government on the estate of George Richard Lawley Gibbs, 2nd Baron Wraxall (1928 - 2001) and allocated to Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, 2004; allocated to the National Trust for display at Tyntesfield, 2013
Credit line
Tyntesfield, The Gibbs Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Back: top centre of original frame.: MAKERS / DULWICH & SONS / 6 NEW COMPTON ST / LONDON / 12052
Makers and roles
Giovanni Bellini (Venice 1431/36 – Venice 1516), artist possibly Niccolò Rondinelli (fl. c.1450 - c.1510) , artist