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THE VIRGIN NURSING THE CHILD
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Author: Artemisia Gentileschi (Rome, 1593–Naples, after 1654)
Title: The Virgin Nursing the Child
Year: 1609-1610
Technique: oil on canvas
Size: 116 x 89,3 cm
This delicate and moving composition of the Virgin and child is an early piece by Artemisia Gentileschi that she painted in Rome while still a teenager training in the studio of her father, Orazio (1563–1639).
The iconography depicted was very popular in Catholic spirituality: the Virgo lactans or the Virgin breastfeeding, a subject eventually discouraged by the Council of Trent (1545–1563) for reasons of decorum. For although the nursing Child symbolised the solace and protection Mary provided to all believers, it also required showing her breast. Artists of the seventeenth century resolved this matter in different ways. For example, in this composition the Virgin’s right breast is concealed by a nursing cover and her hand is modestly placed around the one she is offering to the infant. The two figures exchange tender glances, Mary somewhat pensively in the knowledge of the tragic fate that awaits the Child Saviour, naked save for a thin white cloth that barely covers him, an image that anticipates his death on
the cross. The young woman’s features—large eyes, curved lips, strong jawline and abundant, curly hair—recall those of the artist herself, the model for many of her compositions.
Artemisia made at least another three later versions of this theme, painted following her departure for Florence shortly after marrying in 1612. One is held at the Galleria Spada (Rome), another at the Galleria Palatina (Florence) and a third variant in the Pignet Collection (Caen). All four paintings are similar in size and were produced from the same template or cartoon, an outline of the main figure on which small variants and nuances of light and colour were introduced.
Previously held in a Swiss private collection, the Foundation purchased the work at the Dorotheum auction house (Vienna, Austria) on 22 October 2024 (lot 101).