PB 283

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 71; Larghezza: 108

olio su tavola

This painting depicts a Holy Conversation: at the centre of the composition sits the Virgin Mary, facing forward, her head slightly tilted and holding the Child in her arms, seated on her left knee, whom she lovingly holds with both hands. Jesus turns his gaze sideways upwards, as if looking beyond the limits of the composition. On the right, standing, is a half-length portrait of Mary Magdalene, while on the left is Saint John the Baptist.
The painting is certainly one of the masterpieces of Palma il Vecchio, an exponent of early 16th-century Venetian art, trained at the school of Giovanni Bellini and later influenced by Giorgione and Titian. The painting, painted on wood, can be dated to around 1520-1522. The half-length figures are beautifully set against the bright background landscape, pervaded by a clear and diffused light, typical of Venetian painting between the 15th and 16th centuries.
The symmetry of the composition is a clear reference to Bellini, but the sumptuousness of the drapery and the solemnity of the figures' attitudes reveal the painter's independent maturity, in a fully Renaissance sense.