Madonna Litta
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| Madonna Litta |
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| Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio , approx. 1490–1495 |
| Tempera on canvas |
| 42 × 33 cm |
| Hermitage , Saint Petersburg |
The "Madonna Litta" is a painting of the Italian Renaissance painted by Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio .
History and controversy
The picture of the “Breastfeeding Madonna”, which went down in art history as “Madonna Litta” after its longstanding owner, is considered one of the most famous works by Leonardo da Vinci , although the majority of art scholars no longer attribute it to him today. Attempts have long been made to identify Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio as its creator. However, recent research assumes that it only partially originated from him and that essential parts of it were executed by Marco d'Oggiono . There is evidence that both painters carried out joint commissions within the Leonardo workshop, of which the “Resurrection of Christ with Saints Lionardo and Lucia” in the Berlin Gemäldegalerie , which was also previously attributed to Leonardo, is an impressive example.
The oldest references to the picture probably date from 1583. At that time there was a Madonna tablet in the Pietro Contarini collection in Venice , which is predominantly identified with the “Madonna Litta”. Around 1784 the panel apparently belonged to the collection of Prince Belgioioso before it came to the Litta collection in 1813, from which it was inherited by the Visconti of Milan. There it was traditionally considered to be an autograph work by Leonardo, which led Tsar Alexander II to purchase it for the Hermitage in 1865 . The drawing of the head study, discovered by Vallardi in 1855 and now in the Louvre in Paris, served as confirmation of the attribution .
Immediately after the purchase, the work was separated from its old picture carrier , a wooden panel, and transferred to canvas. This resulted in considerable, irreparable damage.
Between 1880 and 1886, the authorship of Leonardo da Vinci was first questioned by Morelli. He attributed the tablet to Bernardino de 'Conti . This opinion was shared by Harck in 1896, Delarow in 1902, Wolynski in 1907 and, first of all, Berenson. The attribution was rejected by Hildebrandt, Seidlitz and A. Venturi, who wanted to see a work by the then little researched brothers Evangelista and Ambrogio de Predis in the work . Bode, Botari, Poggi, Sirén and L. Venturi even went so far as to regard the panel as the work of an unknown master of the Milan School, who executed it from a cardboard box or drawings by Leonardo. Suida then proposed Marco d'Oggiono as creator for the first time.
Despite these new attempts at attribution, numerous art critics stuck to the traditional attribution to Leonardo, for example Somof in 1899, Cook in 1901, Liphart in 1912 and Goldscheider in 1952. Goldscheider admits, however, that parts were painted by someone else's hand. He suggests Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio as its author. This gained more and more supporters, and soon the attributions to Boltraffio predominated. A confirmation came in 1984 by Ballarin, who recognized a study of the robes for the "Madonna Litta" as a work by Boltraffio in the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett . Loeser had suggested Boltraffio as a draftsman as early as 1902, but the sheet was soon forgotten again due to incorrect filing. In 1929 it was published again by Suida as a work by a Lombard artist, before it was not noticed again until the early 1980s. The attribution to Boltraffio is generally accepted, except by Brown (who published the drawing as a work by Marco d'Oggiono).
Although the attribution to Leonardo da Vinci is now considered refuted, the “Madonna Litta” is exhibited in the Hermitage to this day as an autograph work by him.
literature
- Wilhelm Suida : Leonardo and his circle. F. Bruckmann, Munich 1929.
- Maria Pomilio, Angela Ottino Della Chiesa, Classics of Art - Leonardo da Vinci. Vienna 1967.
- Svetlana Vsevolozhskaya, Albert Kostenevich: Italian Painting. The Hermitage. Leningrad 1984.
- David Allan Brown: The master of the “Madonna Litta”. In: Maria Teresa Fiorio, Pietro C. Marani (eds.): I leonardeschi a Milano. Fortuna e Collezionismo. Atti del Convegno Internazionale, Milan, Settembre 25-26. 1990. Milan 1991, pp. 206-217.
- Hein-Th. Schulz-Altcappenberg: The Italian drawings of the 14th and 15th centuries in the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett. Critical catalog. Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-88609-386-7 .
- Giulio Bora, David Alan Brown, Marco Carminati (Eds.): I Leonardeschi. L'eredita di Leonardo in Lombardia. Milan 1998.
Web links
Individual evidence
The last supper | The Adoration of the Magi of the Orient | The adoration of the child with two angels in a landscape (2) | Anna herself third | Bacchus | Portrait of the Mona Lisa | Portrait of Ginevra de 'Benci | Portrait of a musician (2) | The lady with the ermine | The Madonna of the Rocks | Saint Jerome | John the Baptist | La Belle Ferronnière (2) | La Bella Principessa (2) | Leda with the swan (†) | Madonna Benois | Madonna Dreyfus (2) | Madonna Litta (2) | Madonna with the Carnation | Madonna with the spindle (†) | Salvator Mundi | The Scapigliata | The Battle of Anghiari (†) | Tobias and the Angel (1) | The baptism of Christ (1) | The Annunciation (1)
(†) missing • (1) Andrea del Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinci • (2) Attribution controversial