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Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels Slider Image 1
Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels Slider Image 2
Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels Slider Image 3

Piero della Francesca

Italian, c. 1415/20–1492

Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels

c. 1460–70

The Virgin Mary and Jesus are attended by angels, whose wings are partly visible. The angel in red directs our attention to the infant reaching for a flower offered by his mother, an interaction which may symbolize divine love or allude to Jesus’s fate. The angel in white casts a shadow across the base of Mary’s throne, suggesting the painting originally hung to the right of a window. Piero was an influential artist and mathematician particularly interested in perspective and in Greco-Roman antiquity. In this enigmatic painting, the figures seem three-dimensional, like marble statues, and occupy a space inspired by classical architecture.

Medium oil possibly with some tempera on panel, transferred to fabric on panel
Dimensions 42 7/16 x 30 7/8 in. (107.8 x 78.4 cm) Frame: 54 1/8 x 41 3/4 x 4 1/2 in. (137.5 x 106 x 11.4 cm)
Object Number 1955.948
Acquisition Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status On View

Image Caption

Piero della Francesca, Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels, c. 1460–70, oil possibly with some tempera on panel, transferred to fabric on panel. Clark Art Institute, 1955.948

Select Bibliography

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A Passion for Renoir: Sterling and Francine Clark Collect, 19161951. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1996 Cook, Albert. Temporalizing Space: The Triumphant Strategies of Piero della Francesca. New York: Peter Lang Lublishing. 1992. Brooke, David S. "The Clarks as Collectors". The Magazine Antiques vol. 62, no. 4 (October 1997): 500503. Held, Julius S. "Old Masters in the Clark Collection, Part I: Paintings." The Magazine Antiques 62, no. 4 (October 1997): 504–9. Wheeler, Marion. Her Face: Images of the Virgin Mary in Art. Cobb, CA: First Glance Books, 1998. Roberto Longhi.. Piero della Francesca, 2nd ed.. Milan: Ulrico Hoepli.. 1946.. Marilyn Aronberg Lavin. Piero della Francesca (Art & Ideas Series). London: Phaidon Press Limited. 2002. Christiansen, Keith, ed. From Filippo Lippi to Piero Della Francesca: Fra Carnevale and the Making of a Renaissance Master. 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New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications; Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2011. Polley, Robert L., ed. Great Art Treasures in America's Smaller Museums. Text by Harold E. Haydon. New York: Putnam's, 1967.

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