Beskrivning: Se beskrivning i den engelska versionen.

Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 139: 

TECHNICAL NOTES: The support consists of three boards of
poplar, vertical in grain, glued together vertically. Wormholes and
worm channels are visible. The verso has been treated with a wax
coating and provided with a cradle. It is framed in a non-original
Neo-Renaissance frame. The gesso ground is white. There is underpainting
with green earth under the flesh colours. Extensive
retouching and a tendency to flaking can be noted. The varnish is
very thick and yellowed.

PROVENANCE: Gift of the Friends of the Nationalmuseum, 1930.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sirén 1933, pp. 92–94; NM Cat. 1990, p. 308 (as
Niccolò Rondinelli); Af Burén 2011, pp. 65–66.

This sacra conversazione was given to the Museum
by the Friends of the Nationalmuseum in 1930.
The donation was prepared for and organized by
Osvald Sirén, on the recommendation of Lionello
Venturi. It was a welcome gift, as the representation
of Venetian quattrocento paintings was
and is very meagre in the Italian collection of the
Nationalmuseum.¹

In the centre of the scene, the Christ Child
sleeps in the lap of the Virgin. Mary holds her
hands in a venerating gesture and contemplates the
scene. She is placed on a throne in an architectural
setting with rich grotesque ornamentation, and the
Madonna and Child are flanked by Sts Andrew
and Lawrence (c. 225–258), the former identified
by the white hair and beard and the cross he is
holding, the latter by the gridiron. The Madonna
is dressed in green-lined gold brocade over a red
dress, while St Andrew is depicted in a purple
mantle over a violet robe and St Lawrence in a
green deacon’s tunic, according to the pictorial
convention.

The painting was first attributed to the Ravennese
painter Baldassare Carrari by Bernard
Berenson, an attribution soon to be changed by
Osvald Sirén to Carrari’s master Niccolò Rondinelli.
² A similar painting, the Madonna and
Child Enthroned Between the Archangel Michael
and St Peter, now in the Walters Art Museum
in Baltimore, is a good example for comparison. 
There are also a few altarpieces preserved
in his home town of Ravenna and another at the
Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. All of these have
the architectural setting as a common feature,
and they are all dated around 1500.

As mentioned in the technical notes, there is
extensive overpainting, especially in the faces of
the saints and some parts of the Madonna and
Child. The whole painting is covered by a yellow
varnish which does not do the work justice, and
the features acclaimed by Sirén are difficult to
see today: “The picture glows with bright colours;
the Madonna wears a gold-trimmed brocade
mantle with a green lining over a red dress, and
a white veil . . . The palette is strikingly light and
the ornamental detail unusually rich.”³
je

1 Sirén 1933, pp. 92–94; Af Burén 2011, pp. 65–66.
2 Sirén 1933, p. 94.
3 ”Bilden lyser av klara färger; madonnan är klädd i en
guldsmidd brokadmantel med grönt foder över en röd
klänning samt vitt huvuddok…Färgstämningen är
påfallande ljus och de ornamental detaljerna ovanligt rika”,
Sirén 1933, p. 93. [End]

Utforska konstnärer och föremål som finns i Nationalmuseums samlingar.

Explore the artists and artworks of Nationalmuseum Sweden.

Niccolò Rondinelli | Madonnan med barnet och St Andreas och St Laurentius | Nationalmuseum

Niccolò Rondinelli | Madonna and Child with St Andrew and St Lawrence | Nationalmuseum

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2013