Madonna and Child

Image Rights & Reproductions Requirements

Artist

Francia, Giulio

nationality

Italian

birth-death

1487-1540

Creation date

about 1515

Collection

European

Materials

oil on wood

Dimensions

25 x 18 in.

Currently On View

Location

Italian Renaissance gallery

Credit line

The Clowes Fund Collection

Accession number

C10038

Provenance
Gallery Label

Provenance

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Julian Acampora [died 1958], New York;{1}(John H. Folman Art Gallery, Bronxville, New York) in 1954;{2} to G.H.A. [George Henry Alexander] Clowes [1877-1958], Indianapolis, in 1954, as by Francesco Francia;{3}Clowes Fund Collection, Indianapolis Museum of Art, since 1973 (C10038).

{1}Acampora was a restorer of old master paintings; see obituary in New York Times, 25 April 1958. He is identified as the owner prior to Folman in a letter from G.H.A. Clowes to Folman dated November 1954 in IMA, Clowes Collection Archive.
{2}In 1954 letter cited above.

Gallery Label

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Paintings such as this one were made to stimulate religious contemplation, a pursuit often accompanied by the recitation of short prayers from memory. In this case, the text of a prayer is actually contained in the image. The open book displayed by the Virgin is faintly inscribed with the familiar Marian prayer, the Ave Maria.

Francia's Madonna directly acknowledges the viewer/worshiper with her gaze and presents her naked Child on a ledge that marks the boundary of a sacred realm.

Reproduction of these images, including downloading, is prohibited without written authorization from VAGA.

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