Madonna and Child (Bellini, Pavia) explained

Madonna and Child
Artist:	Giovanni Bellini
Year:	c.1450–1460
Medium:	tempera on panel
Height Metric:	47
Width Metric:	31,5
City:	Pavia
Museum:	Pinacoteca Malaspina

The Madonna and Child is a tempera-on-panel painting usually attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini,^[1] dated to 1450–1460 or to 1450–1455 by Pignatti, though Olivari and others consider this to be too early.^[2] In the 1450s the painter was still heavily influenced by his father Jacopo and by Bartolomeo Vivarini. The strong line used for the Christ Child also shows the influence of Francesco Squarcione and his studio on the young Bellini. The general composition is based on a widely copied Byzantine icon in Venice, whilst the Christ Child holds a Flemish-style scroll bearing the artist's signature. The painting is closely linked to a similar work now in Philadelphia. It is now in the Pinacoteca Malaspina in Pavia.^[3]

References and notes

1. It was first attributed to Bellini by Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle and this has been the consensus view since it was backed by Huse and then Peroni in 1981. Morelli considers the signature on the parapet to be dubious and instead attributes it to Vivarini, whilst Heinemann attributed it to Lazzaro Bastiani in 1962, as did Robertson in 1968.
2. Mariolina Olivari, Giovanni Bellini, in AA.VV., Pittori del Rinascimento, Scala, Firenze 2007.
3. Web site: Entry on the WGA.