The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1591

Andrea Andreani (Italian, c. 1558/9–1629)
after Alessandro Casolani (Italian, Italian, 1552–1606)

This tender composition of the Virgin and Child is a beautiful example of Andrea Andreani’s use of chiaroscuro woodcut, an early color-printing technique he revived and brought to new levels of technical sophistication. Using four different woodblocks printed in succession, Andreani created a tonally complex monochrome, carving highlights into one of the blocks that let the white of the paper shine through. This crisp, early impression shows corrections to the Virgin’s shoulder, perhaps added by hand in the artist’s workshop.

Status: On View, Gallery 205
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Andrea Andreani
Title: The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1591
Medium: Chiaroscuro woodcut, in brown and black, from four blocks, with touches of brown watercolor, on cream laid paper
Inscriptions: Inscribed verso, upper left, in graphite: “36; upper right, in graphite: “12” (encircled)
Dimensions: 33.9 × 19.9 cm (13 3/8 × 7 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: The Amanda S. Johnson and Marion J. Livingston Endowment Fund
Reference Number: 2023.2851
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/269851/manifest.json

New York, Colnaghi, Chiaroscuro Woodcuts: Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century, Oct.–Nov. 1988, cat. 31.

John Barnard (died 1784), London [his initials (Lugt 1419), inscribed verso, upper right, in pen and brown ink]; sold, Thomas Philipe, London, June 19, 1798, probably part of lot 24. William Roscoe (1753–1831), Liverpool [not stamped, cf. Lugt 2645]; Joseph Weld, Ince Blundell Hall, Lancashire; sold, Christie’s, London, June 30, 1976, lot 139. Colnaghi, New York, by 1988 [New York 1988 exh. cat.]. Samuel Josefowitz (1921–2015), Pully, to 2004. Robert M. Light & Co, Santa Barbara. C. G. Boerner, New York. Private collection, from 2007 [all provenance after 1988 is according to C. G. Boerner]. Sold by C. G. Boerner, New York, to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2023.

Bartsch vol. 12, p. 57, no. 13

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The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.