Leonardo da Vinci "Madonna and Child" (Madonna Litta), 1490 - 1491, tempera on canvas. 42x33 cm, State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

The painting was obviously executed in Milan, where the artist moved in 1482. It is one of the works whose appearance marked new stage in Renaissance art - a statement of style High Renaissance. A beautiful woman feeding a baby appears as a personification mother's love as the greatest human value.

The composition of the picture is laconic and balanced. The figures of Mary and the infant Christ are modeled with the finest chiaroscuro. The openings of symmetrical windows offer endless mountain landscape, recalling the harmony and grandeur of the universe. The very figure of the Madonna seems to be illuminated by light coming from somewhere in front. The woman looks at the child tenderly and thoughtfully. Madonna's face is depicted in profile, there is no smile on her lips, only a certain image of her lurks in the corners.

The baby looks absentmindedly at the viewer, holding right hand mother's breast. In his left hand the child holds a goldfinch.

The vivid imagery of the work is revealed in small details that tell us a lot about the mother and child. We see the baby and mother in the dramatic moment of weaning. The woman is wearing a red shirt with a narrow neck. It has special slits through which it is convenient to breastfeed the baby without removing the dress. Both incisions were carefully sutured (that is, the decision was made to wean the child from the breast). But the right cut was hastily torn apart - the top stitches and a piece of thread are clearly visible. The mother, at the insistence of the child, changed her mind and postponed this difficult moment.

The painting arrived in 1865 from the Milan collection of Duke Antonio Litta, with whose name its title is associated.
Preparatory drawing to the Hermitage painting is kept in the Louvre.

Before entering the Hermitage in 1865, the “Madonna Litta” was in the family collection of Duke Antoine Litta in Milan, hence its name. The preservation of the painting was so poor that it had to be immediately transferred from wood to canvas. This unique technology, which made it possible to save the canvas, was invented by the Hermitage carpenter Sidorov, for which he received a silver medal.

Controversy does not subside around one of the most beautiful picturesque images of the Mother of God and Child. The authorship of Leonardo is questioned, and although his papers contain sketches for the painting, some consider it the fruit of the work of the maestro’s students (at least as regards clothing and interior design; still, there are few people who would deny that the face of the Mother of God belongs to the brush of Leonardo ). The date of its creation is also unknown. Although the painting is usually attributed to the Milanese period of Da Vinci’s life, there are also later dates, to the time when Leonardo lived in Rome - there are hypotheses on this matter. One of them is worth telling.

Not so long ago, more precisely, in the nineties of the last century, the Russian scientist and church archaeologist O. G. Ulyanov studied frescoes in the catacombs of St. Priscilla in Rome. This place is known from ancient sources as the “Lady of the Catacombs” because 7 of the first popes were buried there, including the martyr Pope Marcellinus and his successor Pope Marcellus. According to the latest archaeological data, it dates back to the 2nd century AD.

Among the catacomb frescoes there is an image of the Virgin Mary and Child, which is, apparently, the oldest image Our Lady in world painting. The Russian scientist was struck by its coincidence with the composition of the “Madonna Litta”. Like Leonardo, the feeding Child turns around and looks at the viewer.

The catacombs, discovered by chance at the end of the 15th century, became a favorite walking place for artists and thinkers living in Rome. Leonardo came to Eternal City in 1513 and lived there for three years. Of course, he, interested in everything, especially everything unusual, simply could not help but go down to the catacombs, where he saw an ancient fresco that impressed him so much that he repeated it in his painting. That is, the creation of the “Madonna Litta” should be attributed to the time between 1513 and 1517. However, what is interesting about this hypothesis is not the new dating, but the very possibility of that spiritual impulse that was transmitted from the unknown painter of the 2nd century to the genius of the Renaissance.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Madonna Litta

1490-1491. Canvas, tempera. 42 x 33. State Hermitage Museum. Saint Petersburg

Plot

The painting shows a woman holding in her armsthe baby she is feedingchest. Background of the picture -wall with two arched windows, the light from which falls on the viewer and makes the wall darker. The windows offer a view of the landscape in blue tones. The very figure of the Madonna is illuminatedlight coming from somewhere in front. The woman looks at the child tenderly and thoughtfully. Madonna's face is depicted in profile, there is no smile on her lips, only a certain image of her lurks in the corners. The baby looks absentmindedly at the viewer, holding his mother's chest with his right hand. In his left hand the child holds goldfinch

Story

The work was written for the rulers of Milan, then passed on to the familyLitta, and for several centuries was in their private collection. The original title of the painting was “Madonna and Child.” Modern name the painting comes from the name of its owner - Count Litt, owner of the family art gallery V Milan. In 1864 he contacted the Hermitage with an offer to buy it along with several other paintings. IN 1865 along with the other three paintings. Madonna Litta was acquired by the Hermitage for 100 thousand francs

Composition part:

The motto of the picture: The most intimate, the deepest, the most true love- this is Mother's love.

Associations: Affection, love, peace, lightness, sleep, tenderness, simplicity, mother, kindness.

Mother. It's no secret that Leonardo was attracted to this topic, and Leonardo's numerous drawings testify to this. The theme of a young woman with a child is his “element”. He depicted women with faces, sometimes serious, sometimes smiling, in poses expressing tenderness, with a gaze full of trembling feeling and quiet peace, and adorable babies - busy playing and other childish amusements. It is difficult to find absolute adherence to a constant pattern in the interpretation of the image of Mary by the master.

Leonardo chooses purely human situations; analyzing in detail the psychological and physiological motives accompanying them, using the highest expressive possibilities in the Madonna and Child plot.

The so-called Litta Madonna, kept in the same way as the Benois Madonna in the St. Petersburg Hermitage, is attributed by art historians to the Milanese period of Leonardo’s work and, despite the existence of Leonardo’s own drawing, undoubtedly associated with the painting, is usually attributed to the master’s school. Let us note Mary’s emotional pose, expressions of tenderness and pleasure from contemplating her baby suckling at her mother’s breast, while simultaneously turning her gaze towards the viewer. The image is based on the traditional Madonna del latte (Mammal) motif.

Beauty embodied in delicate forms young Madonnas and the plump bodies of babies, is not just a pictorial motif for Leonardo - it is the master’s reflection on the image of a mother, on her deep love for her son, which he translated into the language of painting.

The weak light falling from the windows hardly illuminates the figures, but makes the wall darker. Against its background, these figures are especially clearly modeled by the light coming from somewhere in front. The creation of lighting combinations that would make it possible to emphasize the volumetricity and reality of what is depicted with the gentle play of light and shadow youth Leonardo worked.

Against the background of a wall cut through by two windows, a young woman sits holding a baby on her lap, whom she is breastfeeding. Her face, tender and somewhat dark, captivating with its amazing, subtle beauty, is modeled with that love for light, almost elusive chiaroscuro, of which Leonardo was a fan and connoisseur. A gentle and somewhat mysterious half-smile plays on the mother’s lips, which from now on becomes obligatory for most images of artists, gradually becoming more emphasized and bitter.

The baby, as in “Benois Madonna”, is somewhat large, turned his eyes towards the viewer, drawn in an unusually expressive manner, and on his plump child’s body the play of chiaroscuro seems to reach its apogee, the most delicate shades of light seem to caress the silky skin, creating the impression of its almost tactile concreteness. A blue, dreamy mountain landscape is visible through the windows, from which light pours in, revealing the distant horizons of a beautiful, but barely visible world.

The artist’s task was to show us the beauty, love and care of a mother for her child. Of course, this cannot be done without harmony in composition and harmony in colors.

And the author masterfully masters these techniques. Parsing the picture into light and dark spots, we see that we can distinguish 5 main light spots. The face of a girl, the figure of a baby, two windows located along the upper edges of the picture and a blue cape on the girl. All these spots create movement inside the image, as if the Virgin and Child come to life and they have life there, life beyond the picture, but these spots also create a kind of construction, reminiscent of an inverted triangle.

The compositional structure of the painting is distinguished by amazing clarity and perfection, conciseness and balance. It is enough to pay attention to how beautifully the extremely generalized and at the same time living silhouette of the Madonna’s figure is combined with the geometrically strict outlines of two symmetrically located window openings or how unmistakably precise, but at the same time naturally her head is placed in the partition between these windows.

Thanks to this, we can distinguish two main figures, the figures of the Madonna and the Child, as well as two secondary ones, the windows in the background. The first two figures intersect quite deeply, which undoubtedly gives a feeling of unity, the unity of the image, the inseparability of the whole. By this, the author shows how close the images of mother and child are. It seems that nothing will separate them. Two other images, two windows, only confirm this, since they seem to support the image of the mother on both sides, giving it even more stability and reliability, which further helps in these sensations in addition to the above-mentioned triangles.

The soft sculpting of her face benefits from the contrasting juxtaposition with the blue sky visible through the windows. The feeling of the joy of motherhood in the painting “Madonna Litta” deepened thanks to the content of the very image of Mary - in it the type of Leonardian female beauty found its mature expression. The Madonna's thin, beautiful face is given a special spirituality by her half-closed eyes and a subtle smile - it seems that she is smiling at her dreams...

Artist: Leonardo da Vinci


Canvas, tempera.
Size: 42 × 33 cm

Brief history of creation

Description and analysis

The Hermitage houses two works by Leonardo depicting the Mother of God - “Madonna Litta” and “Madonna Benois”. Some art critics and art historians are inclined to believe that these two famous paintings are closely related. There are several opinions on this topic. According to one theory, authored by the elder researcher Hermitage Mikhail Anikin, “Madonna Benois” illustrates the divine nature of Jesus Christ, while “Madonna Lita” should be seen as a reflection of the human essence of Christ. This pairing of two masterpieces is an illustration of the statement of the Christian Church that in Christ the Divine and human principles are united. As confirmation of this version, one can consider the absence of halos, symbolizing the divine principle, around the heads of Mary and the baby in the “Madonna Litta”, while they are present in the “Benois Madonna”. This interpretation of the relationship between the two paintings could also be unconditional proof of Leonardo’s authorship, since art critics have no doubt that the “Benois Madonna” was his brush.

The landscape, which Leonardo always devotes to in his works, deserves special mention special role. And when comparing two paintings, it can also be considered as confirmation of their pairing. If in “Benois Madonna” the viewer enjoys the crystal purity and clarity of the sky, then in “Madonna Litta” the artist depicted a mountain landscape, symbolizing the beauty of the earthly world.

Proposed theory about the relationship between the two famous paintings Leonardo has not gained unanimous recognition, but in any case it is interesting because it allows a completely new look at great works of art that have long become known.

Description of the painting “Madonna and Child” by Leonardo da Vinci

Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Title of the painting: “Madonna Litta”
The painting was painted: 1490-1491.
Canvas, tempera.
Size: 42 × 33 cm

This painting by Leonardo da Vinci is one of the works whose appearance marked a new stage in Renaissance art - the establishment of the High Renaissance style. The beautiful woman depicted on the canvas feeding a baby is the personification of maternal love as the greatest human value. The painting is named after its former owner, Duke Antoine Litta.

Brief history of creation

There is still controversy surrounding one of the most beautiful images of the Mother of God and Child, main theme which is the authorship of Leonardo. Some art historians are inclined to consider it the fruit of the work of the maestro’s students (with the exception of the face of the Mother of God, which few dare to deny belongs to the brush of Leonardo). The date of creation of the painting is also unknown for certain. According to the official version, it is usually attributed to the Milanese period of Da Vinci’s life. However, there are opinions about later dates dating back to the period of Leonardo’s residence in Rome.

Description and analysis

The painting “Madonna and Child” is one of the renowned masterpieces of the Hermitage collection, causing constant delight and reverence among viewers. The composition of the picture is balanced and laconic. The figures of Mary and the infant Christ are modeled using the finest chiaroscuro. In the openings of symmetrically located windows, a mountain landscape opens to the viewer’s gaze, as if reminding of the harmony of the entire universe. The so-called Madonna Litta is depicted by the master as a thoughtful and serious woman. She has the artist’s favorite type of beauty - a high, clean forehead, a slightly elongated nose, a mouth with barely raised corners of the lips (the famous “Leonard smile”) and slightly reddish hair. This image is the epitome of perfect beautiful woman. However, he is not dispassionate. However, all the feelings experienced by the woman depicted in the picture are deeply hidden by the artist so as not to disturb the clear harmony of her appearance. They appear slightly only in the expression of hidden sadness and in a sliding mysterious half-smile. The depicted baby also looks sad and serious beyond his age. The golden-haired baby looks absentmindedly at the viewer, holding his mother's chest with his right hand. In his left hand is a goldfinch bird - a symbol of the Christian soul. The figure of the Madonna is depicted in such a way that its contours are clearly visible against the background of the wall. The lighting of the female silhouette, contrary to usual logic, does not come from windows located symmetrically behind, but from somewhere in front and to the left, softly modeling faces and bodies.

The main meaning of the work, as in the master’s previous works, remains humanity and respect for genuine deep feelings. A mother breastfeeds her child, looking at him with a thoughtful, tender gaze. Baby overflowing healthy vital energy, spins in her arms, moving her legs. He looks like his mother with his dark complexion and golden hair color. The woman admires the baby, immersed in her thoughts, concentrating all the power of her feelings on him. The artist achieved exceptional expressiveness in his depiction of the Madonna and Child.

However, if you analyze how Leonardo achieves this expressiveness, you can see that the maestro uses rather generalized and laconic methods of depiction. The Madonna's face is turned in profile. The viewer sees only one eye, while its pupil is not drawn. The lips also cannot be called clearly smiling; only a shadow in the corner of the mouth hints at a smile. At the same time, the very tilt of the head, the shadows sliding across the face, the slightly guessing gaze create that unique feeling of spirituality that Leonardo loved and knew how to portray. Completing the stage of long-term quest in the art of the Renaissance, the artist, based on the exact embodiment of the visible, creates an image filled with poetry, in which everything random and small is discarded and those features that create a sublime and exciting idea of ​​​​a person are left. Thus, the master brings together the disparate efforts of his predecessors and contemporaries and, significantly ahead of them, raises italian art to a new level.

A mother and a newborn baby is one of the most popular subjects in art.

He was given special attention as popular as everyone famous artists(Leonardo da Vinci and Rafael Santi), and little known to the general public (Bartolomeo Murillo, di Marcovaldo and others).

Virgin Mary di Marcovaldo

Coppo di Marcovaldo is considered the founder of the Siena school of fine art. His fate is quite interesting, because in mid-XIII V. he took part in one of the battles on the side of the Florentine supporters of the Pope, as a result of which the artist was captured. But since he was very talented, he was able to “buy” his freedom by painting a very beautiful and quite realistic image of the Madonna and Child, which was then transferred to the Siena Church. This Madonna was called "Madonna del Bordone".

This painting presents the viewer with the Virgin Mary sitting on a throne, slightly raising one leg to make it more comfortable for the baby to sit in her arms. She touchingly holds his leg, and he reaches out to her with his hand. They already have some noticeable interaction, which has not been observed for more early paintings.

The Virgo's head is surrounded by a barely visible halo. It is worth noting the incredibly expressive eyes of this Madonna. She looks at the viewer, as if looking into his soul. Her clothes are a simple black cape, but to make it more chic, the artist painted the draperies in gold. On the sides, left and right, there are angels depicted in full height (this is a Florentine tradition). Usually they were drawn the same, but these, if you look closely, are not completely identical to each other: the differences are in their faces.

Let's move on from the lesser known to the more popular and take a closer look at the most striking paintings on this topic.

"Madonna Litta" by Leonardo da Vinci

One of the most depicted Madonna and Child is the painting “Madonna Litta” by the brilliant Leonardo da Vinci. Now it can be seen among the masterpieces stored in the Hermitage.

The main person in this painting is a young woman holding a baby in her arms and breastfeeding him. As in all of them, it stands out more in comparison with the background, where the viewer can observe windows in the shape of arches, through which a bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds. It is worth noting that the Madonna and Child are drawn very clearly, its features seem to be highlighted, as if drawn under a camera flash, in comparison with the somewhat blurred background - this is also distinctive features portraits of that era.

The mother looks at the child with tenderness. Some people think that she is smiling slightly (the “Leonardo’s smile”, popular for the artist’s paintings), but in fact, the Madonna is thoughtful. The child looks at the viewer, holding a bird in one of his hands - a small goldfinch.

Goldfinch in the painting "Madonna Litta"

There are different versions of why the chick is depicted in this painting.

The bird as a symbol of the future suffering of Christ, where the red head of the goldfinch symbolizes the blood shed by the Son of God. According to legend, when Christ was being led to Calvary, a goldfinch flew down on him, pulled out a thorn from Jesus’ eyebrow, and blood dripped onto him.

The goldfinch symbolizes the soul, which flies away after death: this designation comes from ancient paganism, but is also preserved in Christian semiotics.

The apocryphal Gospel of Thomas tells a slightly different story: Jesus revived a dead goldfinch simply by holding it in his hands, which is why many paintings depict this chick with the baby.

Madonnas by Raphael Santi

But there is another, no less famous Madonna and Child. Rafael Santi was the one who wrote it. Or rather, he has quite a lot of paintings with such a plot: this is the well-known and stored in the Hermitage “Madonna Conestabile”, and the extraordinary “Madonna with a Veil”, which depicts not only a mother and child, but everyone Holy family.

Raphael painted the painting itself with the title “Madonna and Child” in 1503. The woman in it is more sophisticated and, undoubtedly, younger than da Vinci’s. Obviously, the bond between mother and child is more pronounced. They look at each other with touching love and slight thoughtfulness, the mother supports the baby by the back with her hand. This is no longer the anxious Virgo that can be seen in the artist’s early paintings.

Together they read the book “Book of Hours” - a symbol of the authority of the church - in which the texts of prayers, psalms, church services(previously, by the way, it was from this book that they learned to read). According to some sources, the Book of Hours is opened on the page that corresponds to nine o'clock, which is the time when Jesus was crucified on the cross.

In the background there is a smoky landscape with a church and trees. By the way, this landscape can also be called distinctive characteristic works by Santi on the theme of mother and child. Almost every painting by Raphael has a fairly detailed landscape background.

There is no point in determining whose painting is better: Da Vinci or Raphael. The Madonna and Child looks original and unique in each of them.

Not only fine arts I was interested in the theme of mother and child, so it is worth considering how it was reflected in other types.

Madonna and Child sculpture

The attention of any art connoisseur is attracted by the sculpture "Madonna and Child", the author of which is famous master Michelangelo.

According to the customers, this masterpiece was supposed to be at a height of about nine meters, so that the audience would look up at it, like a deity. By the way, it is for this reason that the gaze of mother and child is directed downward.

There is evidence that Cardinal Piccolomini (the first customer) was dissatisfied with the sketches, primarily because Jesus was naked, so their contract with Michelangelo was broken. And the sculpture, of course, found its owner. He became de Mouscron, a merchant from the city of Bruges. He then gave it to the Church of Our Lady, where it was placed in a dark niche that contrasted beautifully with the marble-white color of the sculpture itself.

On at the moment, in order to protect the city authorities placed it behind bulletproof glass.

"Madonna Doni" by Michelangelo

Besides the fact that Michelangelo was an excellent sculptor, he was also wonderful artist. Although he did not consider it some kind of achievement and was not at all proud of his talent.

The images drawn by him amaze the viewer with their incredible plasticity; it seems that even when drawing he “sculpts” figures, giving them volume. In addition, the painting depicts the entire Holy Family, which was rare for paintings of this kind. Of course, in the full sense of the word, Michelangelo is a sculptor, not an artist. Madonna and Child, however, is simply a masterpiece.

So, let's summarize. If we talk about the famous painting, depicting the Virgin Mary, then this is Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece “Madonna and Child”. If a person is interested in other types of art, then the most striking and memorable is undoubtedly the work of Michelangelo.

The Hermitage houses two works by Leonardo da Vinci. These are the Litta Madonna and the Benois Madonna. Today we will take a closer look at the history of creation MADONNA LITTA..

Numerous drawings by Leonardo testify to how attracted he was to the theme of a beautiful young mother with her child. He depicted women with faces, sometimes serious, sometimes smiling, in poses expressing tenderness, with a gaze full of trembling feeling and quiet peace, and adorable babies - busy playing and other childish amusements. It is difficult to find absolute adherence to a constant pattern in the interpretation of the image of Mary by the master.

Madonna Litta

Leonardo da VinciMadonna Litta , 1490-1491 Hermitage. Canvas. Tempera. 42×33 cm

The original title of the painting was “Madonna and Child.”

Before entering the Hermitage in 1865, the “Madonna Litta” was in the family collection of Duke Antoine Litta in Milan, hence its name. The preservation of the painting was so poor that it had to be immediately transferred from wood to canvas. This unique technology, which made it possible to save the canvas, was invented by the Hermitage carpenter Sidorov, for which he received a silver medal

In 1864 Duke of Litta appealed to Hermitage with an offer to sell it along with several other paintings. IN 1865 together with the other three paintings “Madonna Litta” was acquired by the Hermitage for 100 thousand francs

The preparatory drawing for the Hermitage painting is kept in the Louvre.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PICTURE.

The mother breastfeeds the child, fixing a thoughtful, tender gaze on him; a child, full of health and unconscious energy, moves in his mother’s arms, spins, and moves his legs. He looks like his mother: the same dark complexion, with the same golden stripes.

She admires him, immersed in her thoughts, concentrating all the power of her feelings on the child. Even a cursory glance catches in “Madonna Litta” precisely this fullness of feelings and concentrated mood. But if we realize how Leonardo achieves this expressiveness, we will be convinced that the artist of the mature stage of the Renaissance uses a very generalized, very laconic method of depiction.

The Madonna's face is turned to the viewer in profile; we see only one eye, even its pupil is not drawn; the lips cannot be called smiling, only the shadow in the corner of the mouth seems to hint at a smile ready to appear, and at the same time, the very tilt of the head, the shadows sliding across the face, the guessing gaze create that impression of spirituality that Leonardo loved so much and knew how to evoke.

Vivid imagery of the work is revealed in small details that tell us a lot about mother and child. We see the baby and mother in the dramatic moment of weaning. The woman is wearing red wide neck shirt . There are special slits made in it, through which it is convenient to, without removing the dress, breastfeed the baby . Both incisions were carefully sutured (that is, the decision was made to wean the child from the breast). But the right cut was hastily torn apart - the top stitches and a piece of thread are clearly visible. The mother, at the insistence of the child, changed her mind and postponed this difficult moment.

The weak light falling from the windows hardly illuminates the figures, but makes the wall darker. Against its background, these figures are especially clearly modeled by the light coming from somewhere in front. Leonardo worked hard and hard from a young age to create such lighting combinations that would make it possible to emphasize with the gentle play of light and shadow the volume and reality of what is depicted.

Madonna Litta. Hermitage.

There is another version ABOUT THE LAST OWNERS OF THE PICTURE.

Count Giulio Renato Litta traced his ancestry to the rulers of Milan, the Visconti. Under Paul 1 he was the permanent representative of the Order of Malta in St. Petersburg. He fell in love and married Countess Ekaterina Vasilyevna Skavronskaya, nee Engelgart, the beloved niece of Prince Potemkin.