Madonna and Saints, Bernardo Zenale

Artwork Overview

Bernardo Zenale, Madonna and Saints
Bernardo Zenale, Madonna and Saints
Bernardo Zenale
Madonna and Saints
circa 1495
Bernardo Zenale, artist
circa 1464–1526
Madonna and Saints, circa 1495
Where object was made: Italy
Material/technique: tempera; panel
Dimensions:
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 129 x 63 cm
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 50 13/16 x 24 13/16 in
Frame Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 152.4 x 86.36 x 11.43 in
Credit line: Gift from the Samuel H. Kress Study Collection
Accession number: 1960.0049
Not on display
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Images

Label texts

Originally, this panel functioned as the central part of a large, probably two-tiered altar-piece made for the church of Santa Anna in Milan and was flanked by two slightly smaller images of saints (now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence).
During his life, Zenale worked primarily as a painter and architect at the court of the ruling Sforza family in Milan. The sophisticated and wealthy court of the Sforza dukes supported an exceptional creative community and employed many significant artists of the day, including Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).

Exhibition Label:
"Forms of Thought," Mar-2014, Kris Ercums
Originally, this panel functioned as the central part of a large, probably two-tiered altar-piece made for the church of Santa Anna in Milan and was flanked by two slightly smaller images of saints (now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence).
During his life, Zenale worked primarily as a painter and architect at the court of the ruling Sforza family in Milan. The sophisticated and wealthy court of the Sforza dukes supported an exceptional creative community and employed many significant artists of the day, including Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).

Label 2009:
Zenale, a leading painter and architect of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, worked primarily at the court of the ruling Sforza family in Milan. The court of the Sforza dukes was one of the most sophisticated and wealthy of the Renaissance. They supported an exceptional creative community and employed many of the most significant artists of the day, including Leonardo da Vinci. As a local artist, Zenale both competed against and worked with visiting artists such as Leonardo, whom he advised on the famous Last Supper fresco in Santa Maria delle Grazie.
The Madonna and Saints panel functioned as the central part of a large, probably two-tiered, altar¬piece made for the church of Sant’Anna in Milan. The Spencer’s painting was originally flanked by slightly smaller images of other saints; these panels are now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Taken as a whole the altarpiece may have been intended to represent the Ognissanti (All Saints) as well as the Virgin Mary’s role as Queen of Heaven.

Exhibitions

Forms of Thought
Kris Ercums, curator
2014–2015
The Samuel H. Kress Study Collection
1960
Forms of Thought
Kris Ercums, curator
2016–2021
Renaissance Art in Museum Collections
Edward A. Maser, curator
1960
Altered Perspectives
2019

Resources

Audio

Didactic – Art Minute
Didactic – Art Minute
Episode 245 Jan-2005, revised Sep-2011, Anna Smith (revision of Episode 19) I’m David Cateforis with another Art Minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. An enigmatic lady in red gazes out from the north wall of the museum's Renaissance gallery. She is a tall and pale Madonna who raises her hands in prayer and looks knowingly toward the heavens. She rises above a sea of faces that stare at her with wondering eyes. To her right kneels Saint Stephen, oblivious to a bloodied stone, the instrument of his martyrdom, lodged in his skull. To her left, John the Baptist, dressed in animal skins, points to her womb and holds a banner proclaiming in Latin, “Behold the lamb of God.” This central panel of a 15th century altarpiece by the Italian painter Bernardo Zenale is full of secrets. An image of the Madonna without a child, surrounded by saints, is unusual in Italian Renaissance painting, and scholars disagree about its meaning. Zenale’s fair-skinned Mary wears a halo that reads “I am dark but lovely, daughters of Jerusalem.” This inscription, from the biblical Song of Songs, is usually found on so-called Black Madonnas, but Zenale does not show this type. We may never be able resolve the riddles of this painting. The lady in red is keeping her secrets. With thanks to Anna Smith for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.
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