Artwork
Madonna and Child with Angels
Madonna and Child with Angels is a tempera painting by the Early Renaissance artist Fra Angelico. It dates from 1425 and is held in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The inclusion of angels, as indicated by the title, suggests a celestial context surrounding the holy figures, emphasizing their divine nature.
The work depicts the Madonna and Child, a central subject in religious art, specifically showing the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child. Created as a devotional image, the painting utilizes the traditional iconography of the Madonna and Child to represent the theological concept of the Incarnation. The inclusion of angels, as indicated by the title, suggests a celestial context surrounding the holy figures, emphasizing their divine nature.
As a tempera and gold panel painting from 1425, the piece serves as a visual representation of the sacred relationship between the mother and son, intended for religious veneration.
Technique & Style
Created in 1425, this work by Fra Angelico is executed as a painting on a wooden panel support. The medium consists of tempera paint augmented with gold elements, a combination typical for religious art of the period. The composition depicts the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child as its main subjects.
Measuring 16.2 cm in height and 9.8 cm in width, the piece represents a compact, vertically oriented format. The handling of the tempera and gold on the panel defines the formal qualities of this early 15th-century religious image.
History & Provenance
Fra Angelico created the tempera panel painting Madonna and Child with Angels in 1425. The work, which incorporates gold on a wood panel, depicts the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child surrounded by angels. Since its inception, the painting has entered the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts, where it is held under the accession number 56.32. The panel measures 16.2 cm in height and 9.8 cm in width.
The tempera and gold painting titled Madonna and Child with Angels, created by Fra Angelico around 1425, is held in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit. The work is cataloged under the accession number 56.32. While the sources confirm the artwork's current location and inventory identification, no specific exhibition history or past loan records are documented in the provided material.
Context
The critical reception of Fra Angelico's Madonna and Child with Angels has been shaped by its devotional intensity and stylistic refinement characteristic of early Renaissance religious art. Scholarship emphasizes its role within Fra Angelico's broader corpus of devotional paintings, reflecting his synthesis of Dominican piety and Florentine artistic conventions circa 1425. The work's placement at the Detroit Institute of Arts anchors its significance within American museum collections, where it is studied as an exemplar of tempera painting techniques enhanced with gold leaf, exemplifying the devotional genre's material and thematic priorities. Its enduring scholarly interest stems from its embodiment of transitional stylistic elements bridging Gothic and Renaissance aesthetics.
Overview
The painting 'Madonna and Child with Angels' is a tempera work created by Fra Angelico in 1425. It is a representative example of early Florentine Renaissance art and is housed in the Detroit Institute of Arts.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (born Guido di Pietro; c. 1395 – 18 February 1455), known posthumously as Fra Angelico ( FRAH an-JEL-ik-oh, Italian: ), was an Italian Dominican friar and painter active during the early…
