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Lot Essay
This sensitive, delicately rendered depiction of the Madonna and Child is the only known work by Massimo Stanzione painted on a stone support. The softly modelled features of the Madonna are similar to Stanzione’s altarpiece of the Madonna of the Rosary in the Cacace chapel at the Chiesa di San Lorenzo Maggiore in Naples painted in circa 1643. This works shows the strong influence of Jusepe de Ribera, who had been working in Naples since 1616 and indeed, such an example can perhaps be seen in the present picture as well through the careful, chiaroscuro modelling of the figures (see for example Ribera’s Madonna and Child, c. 1646, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art). The brilliance of the colouring also suggests the influence of Guido Reni whose works, both in Rome and Naples, Stanzione had studied from the 1630s onwards.
The physical properties of marble permitted for a very even oil technique, allowing for smooth modelling, soft chiaroscuro and beautiful, saturated colours. Stanzione carefully refined his palette to compliment the natural hue of the stone, emphasising the pink inclusions of the marble in the colour of the Madonna’s mantle. The practice of painting on stone supports had been popularised in Italy during the mid-sixteenth century by Sebastiano del Piombo. In a letter, dated 8 June 1530, Vittore Soranzo (1500-1558), the future bishop of Bergamo, wrote from Rome to his mentor Pietro Bembo that ‘our little Sebastiano the Venetian has found the secret with which to paint in oils on marble in the most beautiful fashion, which will make his paintings little less than eternal’ (P. Baker-Bates and E. Calvillo, Almost Eternal Painting on Stone and Material Innovation in Early Modern Europe, Leiden and Boston, 2018, p. 4). Painting on stone supports was technically challenging and posed problems in conceiving a convincing and pleasing composition, something attractive both to painters, keen to prove their abilities, as well as patrons. The perceived idea, taken up by Vasari, that the support would enable paintings to become ‘eternal’ also rapidly established such pictures as objects to be desired by intellectual collectors after 1530. The permanence of stone, imbued with Classical associations (Pliny had briefly mentioned painting on stone in his Natural Histories), would have placed images painted on marble or slate supports as objects of particular interest and appeal to the cultured elite. The nature of the stone’s pattern and grain itself also became something of significance. As interest grew in the wonders of the natural world, collectors increasingly wished to purchase rare or visually pleasing samples of precious or hard stones (an interest which would later see the emergence of fashions for pietre dure in Italy). Paintings on such surfaces would have been regarded as especially remarkable, combining as they did the valued skill of a painter and the natural beauty of the stone.
The support here may be breccia dorata, a type of marble found mainly in the region around Siena. A relatively rare stone to find, the marble was first mined during the 3rd century AD, during the Severan dynasty, and continued to be used in Ancient Rome until the late Imperial era, usually for columns, inlay panels on walls, or as floor tiles. The stone was often recycled and reused from such sites in post-Classical Italy until at least the seventeenth century and it seems probable that the present slab may have originated from such a source. In this way, the marble would have been further celebrated by Stanzione’s contemporary collectors for its associations with an ancient past.
We are grateful to Professor Nicola Spinosa and Professor Riccardo Lattuada for independently endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs, and for the latter's assistance with this catalogue entry.
The physical properties of marble permitted for a very even oil technique, allowing for smooth modelling, soft chiaroscuro and beautiful, saturated colours. Stanzione carefully refined his palette to compliment the natural hue of the stone, emphasising the pink inclusions of the marble in the colour of the Madonna’s mantle. The practice of painting on stone supports had been popularised in Italy during the mid-sixteenth century by Sebastiano del Piombo. In a letter, dated 8 June 1530, Vittore Soranzo (1500-1558), the future bishop of Bergamo, wrote from Rome to his mentor Pietro Bembo that ‘our little Sebastiano the Venetian has found the secret with which to paint in oils on marble in the most beautiful fashion, which will make his paintings little less than eternal’ (P. Baker-Bates and E. Calvillo, Almost Eternal Painting on Stone and Material Innovation in Early Modern Europe, Leiden and Boston, 2018, p. 4). Painting on stone supports was technically challenging and posed problems in conceiving a convincing and pleasing composition, something attractive both to painters, keen to prove their abilities, as well as patrons. The perceived idea, taken up by Vasari, that the support would enable paintings to become ‘eternal’ also rapidly established such pictures as objects to be desired by intellectual collectors after 1530. The permanence of stone, imbued with Classical associations (Pliny had briefly mentioned painting on stone in his Natural Histories), would have placed images painted on marble or slate supports as objects of particular interest and appeal to the cultured elite. The nature of the stone’s pattern and grain itself also became something of significance. As interest grew in the wonders of the natural world, collectors increasingly wished to purchase rare or visually pleasing samples of precious or hard stones (an interest which would later see the emergence of fashions for pietre dure in Italy). Paintings on such surfaces would have been regarded as especially remarkable, combining as they did the valued skill of a painter and the natural beauty of the stone.
The support here may be breccia dorata, a type of marble found mainly in the region around Siena. A relatively rare stone to find, the marble was first mined during the 3rd century AD, during the Severan dynasty, and continued to be used in Ancient Rome until the late Imperial era, usually for columns, inlay panels on walls, or as floor tiles. The stone was often recycled and reused from such sites in post-Classical Italy until at least the seventeenth century and it seems probable that the present slab may have originated from such a source. In this way, the marble would have been further celebrated by Stanzione’s contemporary collectors for its associations with an ancient past.
We are grateful to Professor Nicola Spinosa and Professor Riccardo Lattuada for independently endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs, and for the latter's assistance with this catalogue entry.