Giovanni Badile Sold at Auction Prices

GIOVANNI BADILE (1379-1448/1451): MADONNA WITH THE CHRIST CHILD

1420-1430 42.5 x 37 cm (h x w) Tempera paint and gold; wood panel. 42.5 × 37 cm As the personification of humility, obedience and dedication, the Virgin Mary is viewed by artists and believers alike as the closest intermediary to God. The strong homage to the Virgin Mary is expressed in the Catholic and Orthodox churches as the Cult of the Virgin Mary. The Madonna of Humility (Madonna dell’Umiltà), seated on the ground or in a meadow planted with symbolically meaningful flora and nursing her child, is rare in Czech art (it appears in Madonna of Vysehrad); in Italy the image first appeared in a painting by Bartolomeo da Camogli in 1346. In the painting Mary is dressed in a very fine golden brocade tunic decorated with a regular pattern of fine eyelets, covered with an azure cloak lined with pink (possibly originally red and now faded) bordered with gold. In her arms she holds the Infant Jesus, who is covered to the waist in a white loin cloth. The Virgin is seated on the ground – in the painting, the pigment of the green grass has oxidized to a much darker shade, but the outline of small plants and possibly flowers is still visible, symbolizing Mary’s characteristics. Alessandra Delpriori’s expert assessment attributes the painting to the Veronese painter Giovanni Badile based on “a comparison with his important polyptych from L’Aquila, where the face of Saint Mark is exactly like our child here, and especially his penchant for the full bends and turns of flowing pleats that are identical to the Madonna with the Christ Child assessed here.” Starting price: 500 000 CZK (19 608 EUR)