The Virgin and Child with Saints

Girolamo da Treviso

1498–1544 · Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, highlighted with white gouache, on blue paper that was tinted with a dark brown wash · Drawings and Prints

Born in the northern Italian city of Treviso, Girolamo worked as a painter and sculptor in Bologna, served as a military engineer for the English court of Henry VIII, and died in 1544 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France — reportedly killed by cannon fire during an English attack on the city. The artist's work in Bologna during the 1520s, of which this drawing is an example, reveals a bold, highly expressive adaptation of the classical vocabulary of form seen in the late works of Raphael and his close contemporary, Amico Aspertini, the great Bolognese artist. The composition seen here is typical of altarpieces of the period: the four standing figures of the male saints (Paul, Peter, Francis?, and Petronius?) flank the enthroned Virgin and Child in the arrangement of a Sacra Conversazione (holy conversation), modeled sculpturally in strong light and shadow. (C.C.B.)

Artist

Girolamo da Treviso

Date

1498–1544

Medium

Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, highlighted with white gouache, on blue paper that was tinted with a dark brown wash

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, The Chester Dale Collection, Bequest of Chester Dale, by exchange, 2000