The Madonna of the Carnation

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The Madonna of the Carnation: Leonardo da Vinci

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Leonardo da Vinci Oil Painting - The Madonna of the Carnation

Keywords: Madonna, Carnation

Work Overview: Artist Leonardo da Vinci
Year 1478–1480
Medium Oil on panel
Dimensions 62 cm × 47.5 cm (24 in × 18.7 in)
Location Alte Pinakothek, Munich

The Madonna of the Carnation, a.k.a. Madonna with Vase or Madonna with Child, is a Renaissance oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci created around 1478-1480. It is permanently displayed at the Alte Pinakothek gallery[1] in Munich, Germany.

The central and centered motif is the young Virgin Mary seated with Baby Jesus on her lap. Depicted in precious clothes and jewellery, with her left hand Mary holds a carnation (interpreted as a healing symbol).[citation needed] The faces are put into light while all other objects are darker, e.g. the carnation is covered by a shadow. The child is looking up, the mother is looking down — there is no eye contact. The setting of the portrait is a room with two windows on each side of the figures.

Originally this painting was thought to have been created by Andrea del Verrocchio but subsequent art historians agree that it is Leonardo's work.

The Madonna and Child was a common motif in Christian art during the Middle Ages. This painting is the only work by Leonardo which is permanently on display in Germany.

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Leonardo Status:: Madonna of the Carnation spent most of its existence being attributed to Andrea del Verrocchio. Modern scholarship has revised attribution in favor of Leonardo, based on the handling of the drapery and background scenery, the nearly scientific rendering of the carnations in the vase, and overall similarities between this composition and the (undisputed) Benois Madonna.

A work that would seem to evoke the sketches of a young Leonardo freed from Verrocchio's tutelage, though nevertheless still affected by a passion and taste for the soft textures and dazzle of solid material (as practiced in the workshop of the Florentine artist), is the Madonna sometimes referred to as the Madonna of the Carnation or "Madonna of the flowers".

This painting is a free variant of the Benois Madonna in the Hermitage, being more complex in its composition and spatial arrangement, though perhaps somewhat highflown and less spontaneous. How it arrived at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, after its acquisition by a private German collector, is unknown to us. What is certain is that after a comprehensible, temporary attribution to Verrocchio or his shop, art critics subsequently almost universally assigned the painting to Leonardo, a jjudgment backed up by the most recent research. In fact, the richness of the drapery, the vastness of the mountain scenery with purple and gold hues tingeing the foothills of peaks that fade into the sky, the vitality of the cut flowers in the crystal vase and the softness of the Child's flesh that foreshadows the tender putti of the Virgin of the Rocks, are elements that show a distancing from the more distinctive Verrocchiesque style and instead assume those formal and chromatic characteristics that would be the mature Leonardo's very own. Moreover, we should not overlook the striking similarities - in facial features and other details - with the Benois Madonna already mentioned (the gem fastening the Virgin's gown over her breast) and with the Uffizi Annunciation, works that in their figurative and expressive invention quite clearly reveal the stamp of Leonardo.

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In Madonna with the Carnation Jesus reaches out awkwardly for the flower held delicately in Mary's fingers. Like all infants he looks yet unable to control his movements as he attempts to grasp the symbol of the Passion.

Dating from 1478-1480, this painting, also known as the Munich Madonna or the Madonna with the Vase due to the vase of flowers sitting beside her, is usually considered one of Leonardo's first autonomous works. Many scholars disagree on this point, but there are a number of elements which support the idea.

Firstly, one of his drawings shows some of the details which appear in the Virgin's face, and the hair, left-hand of the Madonna, landscape, draperies and the cushion on which the child is seated are all typical of Leonardo, as is the use of chiaroscuro.

Unfortunately, Madonna with the Carnation has deteriorated badly and due to an improper restoration the surface has taken on a leathery look; this is especially obvious on the Madonna's face.

This painting in held in the collection of the Alte Pinakothek (translation: old art gallery. Pronounced: ALL-tuh peen-ah-ko-tek) in Munich, Germany.

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