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Lot Essay
Catarino Veneziano is first documented in Venice in 1367 and his earliest recorded work – now lost – was painted that same year, for the church of Sant’Agnese, Venice, in collaboration with Donato Veneziano with whom Catarino often worked in tandem (‘Donato e Caterino pittori in Venezia nel 1367’, Archivio Veneto, XVII, 1887, 34, pp. 398). Only four paintings signed by Catarino independently survive today, the Coronation of the Virgin of 1375 and the Coronation of the Virgin with Saints Lucy of Tolentino and Nicholas of Tolentino, both in the Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice, the Madonna of Humility polyptych in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore and another Madonna of Humility in Worcester Art Museum (C. Guarnieri, loc. cit., p. 27).
Like those of Lorenzo Veneziano, Catarino’s paintings are largely rooted in the Byzantine tradition but similarly reflect the influence of contemporary painters working in the Veneto region and beyond. In this painting, the tilted pose of the Virgin’s head and her facial features – the long, elegant nose, arched eyebrows and pinched lips – are based on models by Lorenzo, recalling the same figure in the Madonna and Child Enthroned of circa 1360-65 in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (fig. 1). The pose of the Christ Child and the overall composition are closer to those in Lorenzo Veneziano’s Madonna of Humility which forms the central section of a miniature altarpiece, now in the National Gallery, London (see M. Lucco, La pittura nel Veneto: Il Trecento, Milan, 1992, I, p. 70, fig. 65).
The Madonna wears a sun-shaped brooch at her throat, one of the symbols of the so-called ‘Woman of the Apocalypse,’ a mother-like figure often associated with the Virgin, and described in the Book of Revelation (12: 1-6) as being ‘clothed with the sun.’ The Virgin’s blue mantle is decadently brocaded in gold threads with a pomegranate design. The pomegranate was a symbol of eternal life, its copious seeds signifying fertility and its dark red juice evoking the blood of Christ.
The title of the present work, The Madonna of Humility, is given to paintings in which the Virgin is shown seated on the ground, signifying her humble nature. In the National Gallery painting, she is seated on a simple, earthy mound, while here the ground is lush and densely peppered with wild flowers. The floral floor is similar to that in the central panel of the polyptych now in the Walters Museum of Art, Baltimore, by Catarino Veneziano (ibid., p. 78, fig. 73), to whom the present painting was at one time attributed.
We are grateful to Chris Platts for endorsing the attribution to Catarino Veneziano and Mauro Minardi for proposing that this painting is by an artist in the circle of Lorenzo Veneziano, both on the basis of photographs.
Like those of Lorenzo Veneziano, Catarino’s paintings are largely rooted in the Byzantine tradition but similarly reflect the influence of contemporary painters working in the Veneto region and beyond. In this painting, the tilted pose of the Virgin’s head and her facial features – the long, elegant nose, arched eyebrows and pinched lips – are based on models by Lorenzo, recalling the same figure in the Madonna and Child Enthroned of circa 1360-65 in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (fig. 1). The pose of the Christ Child and the overall composition are closer to those in Lorenzo Veneziano’s Madonna of Humility which forms the central section of a miniature altarpiece, now in the National Gallery, London (see M. Lucco, La pittura nel Veneto: Il Trecento, Milan, 1992, I, p. 70, fig. 65).
The Madonna wears a sun-shaped brooch at her throat, one of the symbols of the so-called ‘Woman of the Apocalypse,’ a mother-like figure often associated with the Virgin, and described in the Book of Revelation (12: 1-6) as being ‘clothed with the sun.’ The Virgin’s blue mantle is decadently brocaded in gold threads with a pomegranate design. The pomegranate was a symbol of eternal life, its copious seeds signifying fertility and its dark red juice evoking the blood of Christ.
The title of the present work, The Madonna of Humility, is given to paintings in which the Virgin is shown seated on the ground, signifying her humble nature. In the National Gallery painting, she is seated on a simple, earthy mound, while here the ground is lush and densely peppered with wild flowers. The floral floor is similar to that in the central panel of the polyptych now in the Walters Museum of Art, Baltimore, by Catarino Veneziano (ibid., p. 78, fig. 73), to whom the present painting was at one time attributed.
We are grateful to Chris Platts for endorsing the attribution to Catarino Veneziano and Mauro Minardi for proposing that this painting is by an artist in the circle of Lorenzo Veneziano, both on the basis of photographs.