ANALYSIS
Matteo Di Giovanni – Madonna and child with St John the Baptist and Michael the Archangel
BBC Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Michael the Archangel [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/madonna-and-child-with-saint-john-the-baptist-and-saint-mi33067 [Accessed 01 March 15].
The painting was created by Matteo Di Giovanni between 1485 and 1495, using tempera paint on a wooden panel.
The painting is 57.9cm by 40.4cm and is currently housed at the Barber Institute of fine arts, located in the grounds of Birmingham University, West Midlands.
Giovanni’s style is linear and decorative; he incorporates the use of fine tools to create thin delicate patterns.
In the instance of this painting, he uses a very limited colour palette consisting of dark colour pigments, which create a rich and luxurious style.
The linear style of Giovanni’s painting emphasises the outlines of the characters faces, and gives definition to the delicately painted details of the clothing.
The ornate details are painted in gold pigment, which gives the impression that the buyer of the painting was quite wealthy, and could afford to pay for expensive tools and mediums to be used. The buyer must have been quite patient as the painting took around 10 years to complete.
The painting is a portrait with multiple characters which appear in biblical scriptures of the Christian faith. The main characters in the portrait are the Virgin Mary (Madonna) and the infant Jesus Christ, whom appear in the center of the image. The characters in the background are St John the Baptist to the left and Michael the Archangel to the right. I believe the visual structure of this painting helps to identify the hierarchy of the characters.
The Virgin Mary is recognisable by her draping robes, which are, unusually, black in colour, rather than the pale blue she is usually portrayed wearing. The Virgin Mary is holding a child known to be Jesus Christ.
The child is confirmed as being the infant Christ by St John the Baptist. St John is holding a scroll which proclaims “here is the lamb of God” while pointing to the child. The text written on the scroll is confirmed in the Gospel of John (1:36) of the Holy Bible. The child is wearing amber coloured beads, one set around his wrist and the other around his neck. The beads could be teething beads, or alternatively there could be a more spiritual significance, to protect the child against evil and illness.
St John is instantly recognisable by his scruffy and unkempt appearance. St John is wearing a camel coloured robe, which is confirmed to be camel skin in the Gospel of Matthew (3:4) he is also carrying a long thin cross which relates to his status as a preacher. Giovanni has portrayed St John as an older, possibly middle aged man, which is unusual as he is known to be 6 months older than Jesus Christ (Luke 1:36). When compared to Sandro Boticelli’s painting entitled “The Madonna and child with the infant saint John” the age difference is much less than Giovanni’s portrayal of St John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, creating a false representation of a biblical reference.
Giovanni’s style of painting appears to change dramatically when comparing St John the Baptist to Michael the Archangel, who appears much more angelically painted, this could be to show that Michael is an angel, however this style in continued on the other two characters in the image.
Michael the Archangel is recognisable by the sword he his clutching in his right hand, as well as the faint and delicately painted wings which almost disappear into the ornate background. The Angels left hand is only partially inside the frame, a hand gesture is still identifiable, though not fully in the scene. The hand gesture is similar to the commonly known ‘A OK’ gesture used in recent times – the gesture could be referring to the infant
Christ as ‘perfect’ or ‘excellent’.
The artist has created delicate halos, painted with gold pigment to emphasise the importance and status of the characters. Halo’s are commonly used in paintings to represent the holiness of the character they surround. “The halo was regularly used in representations of Christ, the angels, and the saints throughout the middle ages” Britannica REFERENCE In the painting each of the characters halo’s have been painted slightly different, the infant Jesus and Virgin Mary’s halos are particularly ornate.
References
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What does this hand gesture mean in Icons? | A Reader's Guide to Orthodox Icons. 2015. What does this hand gesture mean in Icons? | A Reader's Guide to Orthodox Icons. [ONLINE] Available at: https://iconreader.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/what-does-this-hand-gesture-mean-in-icons/. [Accessed 1 March 2015].
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Christian Courier,. 'Who Was John The Baptist?'. Web. 2 Mar. 2015.
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