The Madonna and Child with White Rabbit (La zingarella) (after Correggio)
after Correggio (Correggio c.1489 – Correggio 1534)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1800 - 1899
Materials
Oil on board
Measurements
160 x 135 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Stourhead, Wiltshire
NT 732360
Caption
The traditional title is owed to the Madonna being attired as a gypsy girl (zingarella), her hair is wrapped in a scarf about her head, she wears a white shirt, blue skirts and sandals. She is depicted sitting on the ground with flowers about her, and the infant in her lap, recalling the traditional iconography of the Madonna of Humility. Above are ghostly figures of angels, and to her left the head of a white rabbit. In antiquity it was thought that the rabbit could reproduce without sexual intercourse. So here the rabbit is an allusion to the Madonna’s virginity and the conception of Christ without sin, its whiteness an assertion of purity. This is a copy of La Zingarella by Correggio in the Capodimonte, Naples before its restoration of circa 1934.
Summary
Oil painting on board, The Madonna and Child with White Rabbit (La zingarella) (after Correggio), English School, 19th century. A copy after the original painting of the Zingarella 'Gypsy Madonna' in Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples, and before it was restored in 1934. The Virgin is in repose without the presence of her husband Joseph Other National Trust copied versions are at Lacock, NT 996492 and Belton, NT 436110, as well as an early copy from the Archibald McLellan collection purchased by the Glasgow Museums in 1856.
Provenance
Acquired by Henry II Hoare (1705-85) and thence by descent; given to the National Trust along with the house, its grounds, and the rest of the contents by Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare, 6th Bt (1865 – 1947) in 1946
Credit line
Stourhead, The Hoare Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
after Correggio (Correggio c.1489 – Correggio 1534), artist British (English) School, artist Isaac Oliver (Rouen c.1565 – London 1617), artist
References
Gould 1976 Cecil Gould, The Paintings of Correggio, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1976, p. 230 Ekserdjian 1997 David Ekserdjian, Correggio, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1997, p. 61 Humfrey 2012 Peter Humfrey, The Italian Paintings, Glasgow Museums, 2012, no. 36