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A woman holding a nude baby boy sits on a blue patterned pillow on the floor in front of a brick-red curtain held up by two angels in this vertical painting. The people all have pale, almost gold-colored skin with a green cast, though their cheeks are flushed with pale pink. The woman sits facing us and looks slightly off to our right. She has almond-shaped eyes, a straight nose, and her lips are closed. She wears a blue cloak with a white hood over a shell-pink dress. Her right arm, on our left, rests in her lap and she supports the baby with her other arm. The baby’s nude body is pudgy like a baby but his face and head are proportioned more like an adult. His body turns toward the woman and he reaches up to her neck, and he looks into the distance to our left. Both have flat, plate-like gold halos. The winged angels holding up the red curtain also have halos and they wear blue robes. The curtain falls in gentle folds behind the mother and child, and fabric of the same color underneath the blue pillow on which they sit suggests that the curtain extends onto the floor. A dove, also haloed, floats at the top center of the painting. The gold background around the curtain and behind the angels and dove is painted into an arch over the people, and the upper corners of the panel are dark. A Latin inscription is painted with capital gray letters against a white band along the bottom edge of the panel: “AVE: MARIA: GRATIA: PLENA: DO.”

Masaccio

The Madonna of Humility, c. 1423/1424

Not on View

Medium

tempera (?) on panel

Dimensions

overall: 105.6 x 54.1 cm (41 9/16 x 21 5/16 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1937.1.7

Artists / Makers

Masaccio (painter) Florentine, 1401 - 1428

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

across bottom: AVE: MARIA: GRATIA: PLENA: DO[MINVS TECVM] (Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee), from Luke 1:28

Provenance

Possibly from the Strozzi Sacrati family, Mantua. Said to have been acquired in Italy by Prince Leopold-Emmanuel-Louis Croy Dülmen [1827-1894], Vienna, by 1886;[1] by inheritance to his widow, Princess Rosa Anne von Sternberg [1836-1918], Vienna; by inheritance to her son-in-law, Count Albert Lónyay [1850-1923], Vienna;[2] by inheritance to his son, Count Carl Lónyay [b. 1886], Vienna; sold April 1929 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York);[3] purchased 15 December 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[4] gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] Relating the results of a 1930 trip to investigate the painting's provenance, Edward Fowles, of Duveen's Paris office, wrote to Bernard Berenson on 7 April 1930 (Biblioteca Berenson, Villa I Tatti, near Florence; copy in NGA curatorial files): "It comes from the Lonyays, a very good family. They inherited it from Princess Anna de Croy who was of German origin but married a Hungarian who was a general in the Austrian Army. The family's idea is that he 'commandeered' the picture in one of the Austro-Italian wars..." This information seems trustworthy, although not precise. According to the Almanach de Gotha (1877: 103, and 1895: 136), in 1864 Prince Leopold-Emmanuel-Louis Croy Dülmen married Béatrice, widow of the Count Laval de Nugent, and after her death married a second time, in 1881, Rosa Anne von Sternberg, widow of Count Hohenlohe Bartenstein. Prince Leopold was in the Austrian military service, but it seems unlikely that the painting could have come from the spoils of war. More probably it belonged to his first wife, the daughter of Massimiliano Strozzi Sacrati of Mantua; she was a descendant of an old Florentine family, and one of her forebears, Giulio Cesare, is said to have had an art collection that included fragments of Michelangelo's cartoon of the Battle of Cascina (see Pompeo Litta, Famiglie celebri italiane, ser. 1, vol. 5 [n.d.], pl. xiv). Fowles, in any case, reports "testimony of people of the family that the picture has been known in the family as far back as 1886."

[2] Count Albert Lónyay, general of the Austrian Army, in 1885 married Marie Henriette Hohenlohe Bartenstein, daughter of Princess Rosa Anne von Sternberg from her first marriage (see Almanach de Gotha, ed. 1895: 159).

[3] On 2 April 1929 the Paris office of Duveen Brothers wrote to the New York office, sending a photograph "of the Masaccio 'Madonna' which we have purchased from a private family in Hungaria [sic]. The picture is on panel and will need carefully [sic] cradling and cleaning before shipment" (copy in NGA curatorial files; Box 264, Folder 13, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles).

Early in 1930 the painting was sent to Florence for examination by experts of the Soprintendenza there. This came about because, according to Martin Porkay, Auf dem Karussell der Kunst, Munich, 1956: 178, "the restorer P. [Porkay himself?] who had left the Vienna 'Atelier' on account of financial controversies with the proprietor, took revenge by going to Duveen himself and telling him that the picture had been faked." Actually, the "betrayal" of the restorer was probably only one of the reasons for which Sir Jospeh Duveen was "in the dumps over the Masaccio," as Nicky Mariano, Berenson's secretary, put it in a letter of 2 April 1930 (copy in NGA curatorial files; Biblioteca Berenson, Villa I Tatti, near Florence). In correspondence dated 16 March 1930 Raimond van Marle advised Duveen's New York office that, "Professor [August L.] Mayer just wrote me that he is going to publish number of faked pictures of which he says to know the origin...amongst which the Madonna which Berenson has published as by Masaccio," and this message was relayed by the New York office to the Paris office on 28 March. The situation quickly changed: on 18 April 1930 Duveen wrote to the dealer Julius Böhler, "I understand that Dr. Mayer had a doubt, but has since told my Paris people that he was in error and that he is now quite satisfied." (Copies of this correspondence in NGA curatorial files; Box 264, Folder 13, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles). Presumably Duveen convinced Mayer that the examination at the Soprintendenza earlier that year had confirmed the painting's authenticity; Carlo Gamba, in a letter of 20 February 1930 to Berenson (copy in NGA curatorial files; Biblioteca Berenson, Villa I Tatti, near Florence), recognized Masaccio's authorship and lamented the seriously repainted condition of the panel, commenting very acutely: "forse le carni wono tutte ripasste e non ci rimane che la preparazioneverdastra e rosea come nella Madonna di Londra, ma togliendo i pasticci, resta il modellato di Masaccio con tutto il suo vigore" ("the flesh tones may all be retouched and all that is left is the greenish and pinkish preparation as in the Madonna in London [that is, in the central panel of the Pisa altarpiece in the National Gallery], but taking away the pastiches there remains the modeling of Masaccio in all its vigor"). Subsequently the painting was kept in Duveen's London office (see Samuel N. Behrman, Duveen, New York, 1952: 171, and Porkay 1956: 178).

The account given of the painting's provenance by Porkay 1956: 177 is different and seems less reliable. He claims that the painting was acquired by an unnamed dealer in Vienna in 1927 and was cleaned and repainted in Masaccio's style in the dealer's atelier. Subsequently, the dealer took the result of his efforts to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna to be examined by the Museum's experts and, having obtained a positive response, sold the picture to Duveen "durch den ungarischen Grafen Lónyay, der als Besitzer fungierte" ("through the Hungarian Count Lónyay who appeared as the owner"). Although it is sometimes stated that the painting came from Hungary, this apparently is not the case. Although the Lónyays were of Hungarian origin, they resided mainly in Vienna, and the painting probably remained there even after the the death of Princess Rose Croy Dülmen in 1918.

[4] The original Duveen Brothers invioce is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Dülmen, Leopold-Emmanuel-Louis Croy, Prince
Lónyay, Albert, Count
Lónyay, Carl, Count
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Sternberg, Rosa Anne von, Princess

Exhibition History

1935: Exposition de L'Art Italien de Cimabue à Tiepolo, Petit Palais, Paris, 1935, no. 299, as by Masaccio.

Bibliography

1907: Giglioli, Odoardo. "Masaccio." In Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, eds. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. 37 vols. Leipzig, 1907-1950: 24(1930):194.

1929: Berenson, Bernard. “Un nuovo Masaccio.” Dedalo 10, no. 6 (November 1929): 331-336, 333, repro.

1929: Giglioli, Odoardo H. “Masaccio: Saggio di bibliografia ragionata.” Bollettino del Reale Istituto di Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte 3 (1929): 97.

1930: Berenson, Bernard. “A New Masaccio.” Art in America 18, no. 2 (February 1930): 45-53.

1930: Gordon Stables, Louise. “A Madonna and Child Discovered in a Private Collection in Budapest.” Art News 28, no. 19 (8 March 1930): 19.

1930: Valentiner, Wilhelm R., ed. Unknown Masterpieces in Public and Private Collections. London, 1930: no. 3.

1930: Venturi, Lionello. “A Madonna by Masaccio.” The Burlington Magazine 57, no. 328 (July 1930): 21-27, pl. A.

1931: Hendy, Philip. Catalogue of the Exhibited Paintings and Drawings. Boston, 1931: 233.

1931: Lindberg, Henrik. To the Problem of Masolino and Masaccio. 2 vols. Stockholm, 1931: 62, 141-143, pl. 55.

1931: Venturi, Lionello. Pitture italiane in America. Milan, 1931: pl. 159.

1932: Giglioli, Odoardo. “Masaccio in un recente libro di Mario Salmi.” Illustrazione toscana n.s. 2 (October 1932): n.p.

1932: Mesnil, Jacques. “Vues nouvelles sur l’arte de Masaccio.” Revue de l’art ancien et moderne 62 (1932): 154.

1932: Salmi, Mario. Masaccio. Rome, 1932: 18, 63, 110-111, pl. 13.

1933: Venturi, Lionello. Italian Paintings in America. 3 vols. New York and Milan, 1933: 2:pl.191.

1934: Kennedy, Ruth Wedgwood. “Review of Mario Salmi, Masaccio (1932).” The Art Bulletin 16, no. 4 (Decenber 1934): 396.

1934: Salmi, Mario. Masaccio. Paris, 1934: 19-20.

1935: Gilles de la Tourette, François. “Chefs-d’oeuvre de la peinture italienne au Petit Palas.” La Renaissance 18 (1935): 21.

1935: Pittaluga, Mary. Masaccio. Florence, 1935: 5, 99, 100-101, 160, fig. 5.

1935: Serra, Luigi. “La mostra dell’antica arte italiana a Parigi.” Bollettino d’arte 29 (1935): 32, 34.

1937: Cortissoz, Royal. An Introduction to the Mellon Collection. Boston, 1937: 11.

1938: Wackernagel, Martin. Der Lebensraum des Künstlers in der florentinischen Renaissance. Leipzig, 1938: 181.

1940: Longhi, Roberto. “Fatti di Masolino e di Masaccio.” Critica d’Arte 5 (1940): 181.

1941: Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 31, repro.

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 125, no. 7, as by Masaccio.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 239, repro. 149, as by Masaccio.

1944: Mather, Frank Jewett, Jr. “The Problem of the Brancacci Chapel Historically Considered.” The Art Bulletin 26, no. 3 (September 1944): 187, as by a pupil of imitator of Masaccio.

1945: Fiocco, Giuseppe. La pittura toscana del Quattrocento. Novara, 1945: 13, as ttoo repainted to determine the artist.

1948: Salmi, Mario. Masaccio. 2nd ed. Rome, 1948: 23-25, 175-176, pl. 13.

1948: Steinbart, Kurt. Masaccio. Vienna, 1948: 28, as too repainted to judge of its by Masaccio.

1949: Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 12, repro., as by Masaccio.

1950: Braunfels, Wolfgang. “Nimbus und Goldgrund.” Das Münster 3 (1950): 324.

1951: Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 37 n. 1.

1951: Galetti, Ugo and Ettore Camesasca. Enciclopedia della pittura italiana. Milan, 1951: 1592.

1951: Meiss, Millard. Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death. Princeton, 1951: 140.

1951: Procacci, Ugo. Tutta la pittura di Masaccio. Milan, 1951: 38, pl. 87, as seemingly not by Masaccio.

1952: Behrman, Samuel N. Duveen. New York, 1952: 171-172.

1952: Meiss, Millard. “London’s New Masaccio.” Art News 50 (1952): 50, as “largely modern.”

1953: D’Ancona, Paolo, and Maria Luisa Gengaro. Umanesimo e rinascimento. 3rd ed. Turin, 1953: 55.

1954: Baldini, Umberto. “Notizia di Masaccio.” In Mostra di quattro maestri del primo Rinascimento. Exh. cat. Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1954: 5.

1956: Porkay, Martin. Auf dem Karussell der Kunst. Munich, 1956: 171-182, as by a modern restorer working over the “remnants of a 15th century Madonna.”

1963: Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School. 2 vols. London, 1963: 1:134.

1964: Berti, Luciano. Masaccio. Milan, 1964: 91-92, 146 n. 243, 158, figs. 50, 52, as seemingly not by Masaccio.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 84.

1967: Berti, Luciano. Masaccio. University Park, PA, 1967: 94-95, 153 n. 153, figs. 50, 52.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 74, repro.

1968: Volponi, Pietro, and Luciano Berti. L’opera completa di Masaccio. Milan, 1968: 89, cat. 8.

1972: Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 123, 645, as Attributed to Masaccio.

1974: Hendy, Philip. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Boston, 1974: 159.

1974: Walker, John. Self-Portrait with Donors: Confessions of an Art Collector. Boston, 1974: 127-129.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 216, repro.

1977: Parronchi, Alessandro. “Una ‘Nostra Donna’ del Brunelleschi.” La Nazione (15 January 1977): 3, as Attributed to Filippo Brunelleschi.

1979: Secrest, Meryle. Being Bernard Berenson. New York, 1979: 267-268.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:303-304; 2:pl. 217, 217A,B,C,D.

1980: Cole, Bruce. Masaccio and the Art of Early Renaissance Florence. Bloomington, IN, 1980: 214, as not by Masaccio.

1980: Pope-Hennessy, John. The Study and Criticsm of Italian Sculpture. Princeton, 1980: 22, 38 n. 20.

1980: Ragghianti, Carlo L. “Galleria di Washington.” Critica d’Arte 45, nos. 154-156 (1980): 219, fig. 18.

1980: Stubblebine, James H. “Early Masaccio: A Hypothetical Lost Madonna and a Disattribution.” The Art Bulletin 62 (June 1980): 217 n. 1, as not by Massaccio.

1980: Waterhouse, Ellis K. “Review. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings by Fern Rusk Shapley.” The Burlington Magazine 122, no. 930 (September 1980): 637, as not by Masaccio.

1981: Rowlands, Eliot W. “Review of Fern Rusk Shapley. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings 1979.” Apollo 144, no. 237 (November 1981): 353.

1983: Volpe, Carlo. “Il lungo percorso del ‘dipingere dolcissimo e tanto unito’.” Storia dell’arte italiana 5 (1983): 254-255, repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 251, repro.

1986: Boskovits, Miklós. “Fra Filippo Lippi, i carmelitani e il Rinascimento.” Arte Cristiana 74 (1986): 248 n. 25.

1986: Simpson, Colin. Artful Partners: Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen. New York, 1986: 240.

1987: Samuels, Ernest, and Jayne Newcomer. Bernard Berenson: The Making of a Legend. Cambridge, MA, and London, 1987: 375-376.

1988: Berti, Luciano, et al. Masaccio. Florence, 1988: 130-131, repro.

1988: Christiansen, Keith, Laurence B. Kanter, and Carl Brandon Strehlke, eds. Painting in Renaissance Siena 1420-1500. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988: 13.

1989: Beck, James. “Masaccio’s Madonnas.” In Masaccio 1422/1989. Dal trittico di San Giovenale al retauro della Cappella Brancacci. Atti del Convegno del 22 aprile 1989. Pieve di San Pietro a Cascia, Reggello, 1989: 29, as not by Masaccio.

1989: Berti, Luciano, and Rossella Foggi. Masaccio. Catalogo completo dei dipinti. Florence, 1989: 42, 43. repro., as not by Masaccio, possibly by Andrea di Giusto or the young Filippo Lippi.

1990: Baldini, Umberto. Masaccio. Florence, 1990: 74, 80, as not by Masaccio.

1990: Berti, Luciano, and Antonio Paolucci, eds. L’età di Masaccio: Il primo Quattrocento a Firenze. Exh. cat. Palazzo Vecchio, Florence 1990: 138.

1990: Boskovits, Miklós, and Serena Padovani. Early Italian Painting 1290-1470. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. London, 1990: 29 n. 24.

1990: Casazza, Ornella. L’opera completa di Masaccio e la Cappella Brancacci. Florence, 1990: 64, as not by Masaccio.

1992: Bellosi, Luciano, ed. Una scuola per Piero: Luce, colore e prospettiva nella formazione fiorentina di Piero della Francesca. Exh. cat. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, 1992: 60, 63, repro.

1992: Os, Henk W. van. Studies in Early Tuscan Painting. London, 1992: 20-22, fig. 2.

1993: Joannides, Paul. Masaccio and Masolino. A Complete Catalogue. London, 1993: 440-441, pls. 453, 454.

1995: Spike, John T. Masaccio. Paris, 1995: 188, cat. 4, repro.

1996: Wohl, Helmut. "Masaccio." In Jane Turner, ed. The Dictionary of Art. 34 vols. New York and London, 1996: 20:536.

1998: Fremantle, Richard. Masaccio. Catalogo completo. Florence, 1998: 121, cat. A7, as too damaged to make a definitive attribution.

1999: Leoncini, G. “Introduzione a una lettura del Trittico di San Giovenale.” In Orientalismi e iconografia Cristiana nel Trittico di San Giovenale di Masaccio. Florence, 1999: 15, fig. 9.

2002: Boskovits, Miklós. "Appunti sugli inizi di Masaccio e sulla pittura fiorentina del suo tempo." In Luciano Bellosi, Aldo Galli, and Laura Cavazzini, eds. Masaccio e le origini del Rinascimento. Exh. cat. Casa Masaccio, San Giovanni Valdarno, 2002: 63-64.

2002: Strehlke, Carl Brandon, and Cecilia Frosinini, eds. The Panel Paintings of Masolino and Masaccio: The Role of Technique. Milan, 2002: 254-256, pls. 34-34d, as Follower of Masaccio.

2003: Boskovits, Miklós, David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2003: 458-464, color repro.

2003: Parenti, Daniela. “Nuovi studi sulla tecnica di Masolino e Masaccio.” Arte Cristiana 91 (2003): 94.

2003: Rowlands, Eliot W. Masaccio: Saint Andrew and the Pisa Altarpiece. Los Angeles, 2003: 22-24, figs. 21, 23.

2005: Ames-Lewis, Francis. "Review. The Panel Paintings of Masolino and Masaccio. The Role of Technique by Carl Brandon Strehlke and Cecilia Frosinini: Masaccio, St. Andrew and the Pisa Altarpiece by Eliot W. Rowlands.” The Burlington Magazine 147, no. 1229 (August 2005): 556.

2005: Christiansen, Keith, ed. From Filippo Lippi to Piero della Francesca: Fra Carnevale and the Making of a Renaissance Master. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2005: 162.

2006: Fahy, Everett. "Early Italian paintings in Washington and Philadelphia." The Burlington Magazine 148, no. 1241 (August 2006): 538.

2010: Holler, Manfred J., and Barbara Klose-Ullmann. "Art Goes America." Journal of Economic Issues 44, no. 1 (March 2010): 95.

2013: Walmsley, Elizabeth. "Italian Renaissance Paintings Restored in Paris by Duveen Brothers, Inc., c. 1927-1929." Facture: conservation, science, art history 1 (2013): 58-77, fig. 11.

2016: Cecchi, Alessandro. Masaccio. Milan, 2016: 310, fig. 3, as Circle of Masaccio, c. 1430.

2017: Schumacher, Andreas, ed. Florentiner Malerei. Alte Pinakothek: Die Gemälde des 14. bis 16. Jahrhunderts. Munich, 2017: 242, fig. 12.6

2019: Pasqualini, Daniela. Masaccio. Guida ragionata alle opere di Masaccio in Italia. Bologna, 2019: 152, repro., as Circle of Masaccio (?).