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Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels

Workshop of Bernardino Luini

European Art

The Christ Child is depicted holding a glass sphere, which identified him to Renaissance audiences as lux mundi, the light of the world. This painting is a replica, created in the workshop of Bernardino Luini, of the central section of Luini’s 1523 altarpiece in the Basilica of San Magno in Legnano (near Milan). It was common in Renaissance Italy for artists and their studios to produce copies of their celebrated works for private clients and churches.

Small incision marks (only visible when seen illuminated from one side, at an oblique angle) suggest that this composition was based on the same preparatory drawing as the original altarpiece.
MEDIUM Oil on poplar panel
  • Place Made: Italy
  • DATES mid-16th century
    DIMENSIONS 96 3/4 x 54 1/16 in. (245.7 x 137.3 cm) Frame: 106 1/2 x 69 x 6 1/2 in. (270.5 x 175.3 x 16.5 cm)  (show scale)
    COLLECTIONS European Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 16.441
    CREDIT LINE Purchased with funds given by Martin Joost, Frank S. Jones, L. W. Lawrence, Dick S. Ramsay, John T. Underwood, Henry H. Benedict, Herman Stutzer, F. Healy, Horace J. Morse, Luke V. Lockwood, Henry L. Batterman, Edward C. Blum, Frank L. Babbott, William H. Crittenden, W.C. Courtney, Frederic B. Pratt, H. I. Pratt, Alfred T. White, E. LeGrand Beers, C. D. Pratt, C. J. Peabody, Wallace A. Putnam, and A. Augustus Healy
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Workshop of Bernardino Luini (Italian, Milanese School, circa 1480-1532). Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels, mid-16th century. Oil on poplar panel, 96 3/4 x 54 1/16 in. (245.7 x 137.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by Martin Joost, Frank S. Jones, L. W. Lawrence, Dick S. Ramsay, John T. Underwood, Henry H. Benedict, Herman Stutzer, F. Healy, Horace J. Morse, Luke V. Lockwood, Henry L. Batterman, Edward C. Blum, Frank L. Babbott, William H. Crittenden, W.C. Courtney, Frederic B. Pratt, H. I. Pratt, Alfred T. White, E. LeGrand Beers, C. D. Pratt, C. J. Peabody, Wallace A. Putnam, and A. Augustus Healy, 16.441 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 16.441_SL3.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 16.441_SL3.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2015
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