The Birth of the Virgin
Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari (Rome 1654 – Rome 1727)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1682 (after) - 1727
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
673 x 578 mm (26 1/2 x 22 3/4 in)
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 436010.1
Caption
This picture was adapted from one painted for the Cappella Maraccioni in Santa Maria del Suffragio on the via Giulia, Rome. Chiari painted scenes of the Birth of the Virgin and the Adoration of the Magi for the third chapel on the right. This episode from the life of the Virgin is taken from Jacobus de Voragine's book of the Golden Legend (1275). Her mother, Anne is seen in the background, lying on a bed, whilst the infant Mary is brought forward to be bathed. Her father, the wealthy Joachim is giving thanks to God in the foreground.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Birth of the Virgin by Guiseppe Chiari (1654-1727). The scene shows the mother holding up the baby to an assembly of two ladies with figures standing and seated. Pendant to NT 436010.2. Adapted from a picture painted for the Capella Maraccioni in S. Maria del Suffragio, Rome, 1682. The Virgin's birth is described int the Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea) which was written by the Dominican Archbishop of Genoa, Jacobus da Voragine (c. 1230 - c. 1298).
Provenance
Recorded in an inventory taken at St James April 1754 (Records of the Cust Family. 1909 p. 231); purchased with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) from Edward John Peregrine Cust, 7th Baron Brownlow, C. St J. (b.1936) in 1984
Credit line
Belton House, The Brownlow Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund by the National Trust in 1984)
Makers and roles
Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari (Rome 1654 – Rome 1727), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Carlo Maratta (Camerano 1625 – Rome 1713), artist