The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 23, 2025

Virgin and Child

c. 1500
(Italian, 1452–1519)
Italy, early 16th Century
oil on wood
Framed: 57.5 x 47 x 4 cm (22 5/8 x 18 1/2 x 1 9/16 in.); Painted surface: 41.5 x 30.3 cm (16 5/16 x 11 15/16 in.); Panel: 41.7 x 30.9 cm (16 7/16 x 12 3/16 in.)
Holden Collection 1916.779
Location: not on view

Description

Madonna and Child appear in half-length, seated against a dark wall. The Child's body is covered in shadow as he looks over his shoulder at his mother. This painting was bought by James Jackson Jarves as a Leonardo. The landscape and features of the figures are similar to Leonardo's Madonna of the Rocks, and in typical Leonardesque fashion, the figures' heads incline slightly to the left. However, Virgin and Child was later attributed to a member of Leonardo's circle named Francesco Napolitano (active 1500) because of its resemblance to his Madonna and Child with St. Sebastian and St. John the Baptist in Zurich, Switzerland. Virgin and Child has not been widely accepted as a work of Napolitano; however, he was certainly a member of Leonardo's circle. The Sforzesco Castle, the seat of Milan's ruling Sforza family, appears in the background. The castle's original Torre del Filarete, visible in this painting, was destroyed by lightning in 1521 and later rebuilt by Francesco II Sforza. The destruction of the tower establishes a date of about 1500 for this painting.
  • Leopoldo Franceschi (San Miniatello, Italy), after his death, acquired by a carpenter named Monta
    Monta (Florence, Italy), after his death, by inheritance to his heirs
    -1857
    Heirs of Monta, sold to Vincenzo Corsi, Florence, 1857
    1857-1858
    Vincenzo Corsi (Florence, Italy), sold to James Jackson Jarves, 1858
    1858-1884
    James Jackson Jarves [1818-1888] sold to Mrs. Liberty E. Holden
    1884-1916
    Mrs. Liberty E. Holden [1838-1932] Cleveland, OH, by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1916.
    1916-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Jarves, James Jackson. Art Studies: The "Old Masters" of Italy : Painting. 1861. Reproduced: p. 388
    Hollenden Gallery, James Jackson Jarves, and Liberty Emery Holden. Handbook for Visitors to the Hollenden Gallery of Masters: Exhibited at the Boston Foreign Art Exhibition in 1883-4. S.l: J.J. Jarves, 1883. Mentioned: p. 17-22
    Rubinstein-Bloch, Stella. Catalogue of a Collection of Paintings, Etc. Presented by Mrs. Liberty E. Holden to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1917. Mentioned: p. 38-39, cat. no. 43; Reproduced: p. 67, No. 43 archive.org
    G. U. "The Holden Collection." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 2 (1917): 19-34. Mentioned: p. 20 www.jstor.org
    Malaguzzi Valeri, Francesco. La corte di Lodovico il Moro. Milano, Italy: Hoepli, 1929. . Reproduced: p. 44, no. 1
    Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Reniassance, A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places (Oxford, 1932). Reproduced: p. 205
    Francis, Henry. "The Holden Francesco Napolitano." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 22, no. 10 (December 1935): 156-159. Reproduced: front cover; Mentioned: p. 156-159 25137731
    Steegmuller, Francis. The Two Lives of James Jackson Jarves. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1951. Mentioned: p. 223-224; Reproduced: p. 285
    Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places : Central Italian and North Italian Schools. London, United Kingdom: Phaidon, 1968. . Reproduced: p. 144
    Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972. .. Mentioned: p. 73-74; Reproduced: p. 322
    Olszewski, Edward J., and Jane Glaubinger. The Draftsman's Eye: Late Italian Renaissance Schools and Styles. Cleveland, OH: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with the Indiana University Press, 1981. Reproduced: p. 144
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Mentioned: p. 380; Reproduced: p. 381
    Trutty-Coohill, Patricia. Studies in the School of Leonardo Da Vinci: Paintings in Public Collections in the United States with a Chronology of the Catalogue of Auction Sales. 1982. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 111-115
    Chong, Alan, “Cleveland Collectors a Century Ago”, Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 36 no. 05, May 1996 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 8 archive.org
  • Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).
    Art and Humanism in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 23-February 25, 1962).
    Exhibition of the Month: The Rise of the Landscape in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 9-September 26, 1948).
    The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).
    The Inaugural Exhibition of The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 6-September 20,1916).
    Loan Exhibition of the Holden Collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (October 1912).
    Cleveland Art Loan Exhibition. Hickox Building, Cleveland, OH (January 1894).
    American Exhibition of Foreign Products, Arts and Manufacturers. Mechanics Hall, Boston, MA (September 3, 1883-January 12, 1884).
    Institute of Fine Arts, New York, NY (1860).
  • {{cite web|title=Virgin and Child|url=false|author=Leonardo da Vinci|year=c. 1500|access-date=23 April 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1916.779