Master of the Madonna Straus

Madonna and Child , oil on panel, between 1385 and 1389, Bonnefantenmuseum , Maastricht

As a master of Madonna Straus ( Engl. Master of the Straus Madonna of) is Italian painter called, the 1385 is a small-sized image of the with child Madonna painted on a gold background. The 90 centimeter high and 48 wide work was recently in the collection of Edith A. and Percy S. Straus from New York in the United States and was then donated to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston , Texas.

The master of the Madonna Straus , who is not known by name, was probably active in Florence from around 1385 to 1415. More than 30 works are attributed to him. One can recognize the same direction in the work of the master as in the later work of the Florentine painter Lorenzo Monaco or that of his contemporary in Florence Agnolo Gaddi . However, the master of the Madonna Straus developed his own typical language of form and choice of colors with a dreamlike, ecstatic expressiveness . The master, like his Florentine contemporary, the master of Bambino Vispo , is an important example of a new, very realistic Gothic painting in Florence. The Madonnas of the Master of the Madonna Straus are still shown in an almost iconic pose, but in the later pictures of the master, animals and flowers, for example, are shown more closely observed. This observation of nature points to the transition of the “skyward” motif choice from the late Gothic to the Renaissance and its depiction of the human environment. The painter Masolino da Panicale, for example, continued this development in Florence .

In comparison with pictures of the Madonna by Giotto di Bondone , who painted in the Renaissance style 80 years earlier in Italy, it becomes clear that the master of Madonna Straus was still in traditional iconography , be it because he felt obliged as an artist to use this traditional style of painting or because his clients still preferred the old style.

Works (selection)

• Madonna and Child, from the Straus Collection , circa 1385, Museum of Fine Art, Houston, TX
• Madonna and Child, next to it a crucifixion scene , around 1385, Carnegie Museum of Art Inv. No. 70.29.2
• Crucifixion scene with symbols of the Passion (Madonna and Man of Sorrows), around 1395, Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence
• Annunciation , c. 1390, Diocesan Museum, Florence
• Madonna with Child and Angels and Four Saints , around 1400, Art Gallery of Ontario # 60/70
• Adoration of the Magi , circa 1410, Seattle Art Museum , Seattle, WA
• Stations of the Cross , around 1410, Národní Gallery, Prague and Fioratti Collection, New York
• Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels and Saints , around 1410, Astley Cheetham Art Gallery, Stalybridge , Tameside, UK

literature

• Miklós Boskovits: In margine alla bottega di Agnolo Gaddi . In: Paragone 30 (1979), p. 59ff.
• Master of the Straus Madonna . In: Jane Turner (Ed.): The Dictionary of Art . Volume 20, Oxford 1996
• A Permanent Legacy: 150 Works from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts . Houston, New York 1989
• Carolyn Wilson: Italian Paintings from the XIV Through XVI Centuries in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston . Houston, London 1996
• Richard Offner: A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting . 16 volumes. New York 1931–1981 (Volume Fourteenth Century. New York, 1958)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mus. FA, Houston, TX, inventory number 44,565
2. ↑ Master of the Straus Madonna . In: Jane Turner (Ed.): The Dictionary of Art . Volume 20, Oxford 1996