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Virgin and the Dead Christ with the Ascension and Saints
Bartolomeo Vivarini (Italian (Venetian), active about 1440, died after 1500)
1485
Medium/Technique
Carved and painted wood; tempera and oil on panel
Dimensions
236.09 x 198 cm (92 15/16 x 77 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Quincy Adams Shaw
Accession Number01.4.1-10
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
This monumental altarpiece is distinctive because it weaves together painting and sculpture and because it is nearly intact, including much of the elaborate Gothic frame. The central niche contains a carved and painted relief of the Pieta, a devotional image of Mary holding her dead son Jesus on her lap. Made in Venice, the altarpiece was shipped to the island of Rab in present-day Croatia, then part of the Venetian republic. Its original location there was the Benedictine monastic church of Saint Andrew, reflected in the inclusion on the lower tier of Saint Benedict (far left) and Scholastica (far right). The Gothic taste—especially evident in the lavish carving, gilding, and pointed arches of the frame—continued to be popular in Venice and its lands throughout the 15th and early 16th centuries, flourishing alongside works in a Renaissance style.
DescriptionFrom upper left, the depicted saints are: Jerome, Gregory, Mary Magdalen, Christopher, Benedict, Andrew, George, and Scholastica.
InscriptionsSigned and dated below central Pietá on the base of the sculpture: FACTVM VENETIIS PER BARTOLOMEVM VIVARINVM DE MVRIANO PINXIT 1485.
Provenance1485, painted for the church of St. Andrew, Rab, Croatia; 1876, removed from the church and sold in Venice [see note 1], probably to Quincy Adams Shaw (b. 1825 - d. 1908), Boston [see note 2]; 1901, gift of Quincy Adams Shaw to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 9, 1901)
NOTES: [1] The altarpiece was described as in situ by Rudolf Eitelberger von Edelberg, "Die mittelalterlichen Kunstdenkmale Dalmatiens," Jahrbuch der Kaiserl. Konigl. Central-zur Erforschung und Erhaltung der Baudenkmale 4-5 (1860): 156-57. It was removed in 1876 and sold in Venice, according to Ivo Baric, Kulturni Kapital Rapske Bastine (Rab, 2001), pp. 52-53. Vladislav Brusic, Otok Rab (n.p., 1920), pp. 157-58, states that the altarpiece remained at the church until 1876, and erroneously gives its current location as the Accademia, Venice. When it was removed, the altarpiece was replaced by a copy. [2] Shaw first lent the altarpiece to the MFA in 1876.
NOTES: [1] The altarpiece was described as in situ by Rudolf Eitelberger von Edelberg, "Die mittelalterlichen Kunstdenkmale Dalmatiens," Jahrbuch der Kaiserl. Konigl. Central-zur Erforschung und Erhaltung der Baudenkmale 4-5 (1860): 156-57. It was removed in 1876 and sold in Venice, according to Ivo Baric, Kulturni Kapital Rapske Bastine (Rab, 2001), pp. 52-53. Vladislav Brusic, Otok Rab (n.p., 1920), pp. 157-58, states that the altarpiece remained at the church until 1876, and erroneously gives its current location as the Accademia, Venice. When it was removed, the altarpiece was replaced by a copy. [2] Shaw first lent the altarpiece to the MFA in 1876.