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Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 105: 

FORMER INV. NOS.: 284 (B. 1830s); KM 1068.

TECHNICAL NOTES: The support consists of two pieces of medium-
coarse, twill-weave linen fabric sewn together horizontally.
The painting is lined with glue and mounted on a non-original
strainer. The paint-layer is very abraded and there are numerous
old retouches all over the painting. The varnish is yellowed.
The painting is in poor condition. Documented restorations: 1921:
Cleaned from overpaintings. New “repairs”. Varnish.

PROVENANCE: Byström 1852.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: NM Cat. 1867, p. 3 (as Moretto, The Virgin and
Child with St Petronius and St Martin); Sander 1872–76, IV, p. 112,
no. 17 (as Moretto, attributed to, The Virgin and Child with St
Petronius and St Martin); NM Cat. 1958, p. 231 (as anonymous, 16th
century, The Virgin and Child with St Petronius and St Martin); NM
Cat. 1990, p. 417 (as anonymous, 16th century, The Virgin and Child
with St Petronius and St Martin).

The large dimensions and the subject matter of
this canvas clearly indicate its origin as an altarpiece.
The painting presents a classical religious
scene, with the Madonna and Child seated on
a high throne in a raised hierarchical position,
flanked by two saints. The scene is set against
green drapery with a column on either side. The
canvas is dated to the year 1590, which is written
in Roman numerals on the base of the throne.

When the canvas belonged to the Byström
Collection it was referred to simply as a “Madonna
and Child with Two Saints”.¹ Later, these
last were erroneously identified as St Martin,
the 4th-century bishop of Tours, standing to the
left in the painting, and St Petronius, the patron
saint of the city of Bologna, to the right.² Certain
attributes, or the lack thereof, have led to a
reidentification of the two saints. The figure to
the left is dressed in a green robe and draped in a
red mantle, and while contemplating the Virgin
and Child he gives a coin to a poor naked man
seated at his feet. The iconography of St Martin
of Tours does include a scantily clad beggar at the
saint’s feet, but in the episode of the cloak, Martin
is depicted handing him half of his military cloak,
which he has cut in two.³ In the Nationalmuseum
canvas, by contrast, the saint is donating a coin
to the man resting at his feet, and alms-giving is
a characteristic associated with the 12th-century
Italian saint Homobonus, a merchant tailor from
the city of Cremona who spent his life and fortune
helping the needy. St Homobonus is often
depicted dressed in green and red, handing a coin
to a half-naked beggar on the ground, as in the
Nationalmuseum painting.⁴ The saint to the right
here, on the other hand, is dressed in a red and
gold brocade dalmatic and holds a model of a city
in his hands, which he presents to the Virgin. The
flag to his right reveals that this is not St Petronius,
as believed, but St Vincent, the patron saint
of Vicenza.⁵ The city model is of Vicenza and
most probably represents the “Jewel of Vicenza”
(Gioiello di Vicenza), a silver model of the city
created in 1578 to Andrea Palladio’s design and
donated to the church of the Madonna of Monte
Berico to ward off the plague.⁶

The reidentification of the saints makes
possible a more accurate indication of the artist’s
cultural sphere and the place of origin of
the altarpiece. Given the presence of St Vincent
with the model of the city of Vicenza, it is most
likely that the canvas originates from that area.
The artistic life of late 16th-century Vicenza was
dominated by the Maganza family, and especially
Alessandro Maganza.⁷ The latter, strongly
influenced by the art of Tintoretto and Veronese,
was extremely active in the city according to the
ancient writers. Carlo Ridolfi wrote in 1648 how
in Vicenza there was “No church or oratory that
doesn’t have works by Maganza”,⁸ and Luigi Lanzi
later noted that “Vicenza is overflowing with
his [Alessandro Maganza’s] paintings, in private
and in public”.⁹

The Nationalmuseum painting most probably
has its origins in the small oratory once in
the centre of Vicenza, dedicated by the tailors’
confraternity of the city to their patron Homobonus.
¹⁰ The canvas that once decorated the altar
of this oratory, which resembles the Nationalmuseum
work, was first recorded by Marco Boschini
in 1676.¹¹ Boschini describes the subject matter
of the altarpiece as a Madonna and Child with St
Vincent and St Homobonus, and indicates further
that the author of the canvas is Alessandro
Maganza, and that it is one of his “rare” paintings,
which must be taken to mean exceptional.
The altarpiece was later mentioned by Francesco
Vendramini Mosca in 1779, still in the Oratory of
St Homobonus in Vicenza.¹² The canvas, which
is now considered lost,¹³ possibly left the oratory
during the early years of the 19th century, when
Vicenza became part of the French Empire and
was annexed to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy
in 1805, or possibly already in 1797, when the city
was first subjugated to the French government
and many of its convents and monasteries were
abolished, and as a consequence much of Vicenza’s
artistic heritage left the city.¹⁴ It is possible
that the canvas subsequently arrived on the
Roman art market and was purchased for the
Byström Collection.
se

1 RA, E I a: 280, Finansdep. Konseljakt, ärende nr. II,
1852-05-26, Katalog öfver framlidne Professor J. N.
Byströms Tafvel-Samling, no. 284 “Madonnan med barnet,
omgifven av 2ne Heliga af Bonifazio, 250 riksdaler banco”.
The painting was first attributed to Bonifacio de’ Pitati,
called Bonifacio Veronese.
2 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, G: 3, Redogörelse för
statsanslaget till Kongl. Museum, 1844–1854; NM
Archives, D: 1, Inventarier över Kongl. Museum, 1803–1857.
The canvas was attributed here to Alessandro Bonvicino,
called il Moretto, and was interpreted as a “Madonna and
Child with St Petronius and St Martin”.
3 Kaftal 2003, pp. 691–704.
4 Ibid., pp. 425–426.
5 Ibid., pp. 860–867.
6 Zorzi 1966, pp. 144, 154–156, docs. 1–9, fig. 162. The model
was later destroyed by the Napoleonic troops in 1797, and
recently a new “Jewel of Vicenza” has been created, based on
pictures of the model, like the one in the painting Madonna
and Child with St Anastasius and St Vincent by Alessandro
Maganza from 1613, in the church of San Vincenzo in
Thiene.
7 Binotto 1989, pp. 795–796.
8 Ridolfi 1648, p. 241.
9 Lanzi 1809, p. 233.
10 Giarolli 1987, p. 155.
11 Marchioro (1676) 2000, pp. 143–144, “Chiesa di S. Huomobuono,
Scuola de Sarti. La Tavola dell’Altare contiene la
B. V. col Bambino sedente con S. Vincenzo Protettore della
Città, e S. Huomobuono protettore de sarti: opera delle
rare di Alessandro Maganza”.
12 Vendramini Mosca 1779, p. 100, “Oratorio di S. Omobon:
Fraglia de’ Sartori. La Tavola dell’Altare, che contiene la B.
V. col Bambino sedente, S. Vincenzo, e S. Omobon, è opera
delle rare di Alessandro Maganza”.
13 Marchioro (1676) 2000, p. 213, note 77. [End]

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2013

Madonnan med barnet och St Martin och St Petronius