Madonna of Veverži ( Βeverža Madonna ; Czech. Madona z Veveří ) is a medieval Czech icon of the Virgin Mary with the Baby, painted in the middle of the 14th century for the chapel of Our Lady of Vejerža, located next to the royal castle of Veverži near Brno . One of the most famous Marian icons in Moravia , since 2016 it is included in the list of national cultural monuments of the Czech Republic [1] . The creator of the icon is considered the master of the Vyshebrodsky altar .
| ||
| Anonymous | ||
| Madonna of Veverzhi . C. 1350 | ||
| Czech Madona z veveří | ||
| Pine board covered with canvas, tempera . 79.5 × 62.5 cm | ||
| Diocesan Museum in Brno , Brno | ||
Content
Image Description
The painting was painted with tempera on a chalk basis , without a noticeable pattern, on a pine wood board covered with canvas on both sides (size 79.5 × 62.5 cm). Compared with older Italian-Byzantine works, the contours of the painting are more depressed, and the artist uses azure color transition technology in his incarnations. The Madonna has a simple, dim cape - a red cloak with a blue lining decorated with gold stars. The cloak, Madonna’s clothes and the child’s transparent shirt are trimmed with thin trim on the hem. Madonna's crown ends with curly leaves. The composition of the image is akin to the type of the Zbraslav Madonna , later the Roman Madonna or Madonna of Kladsk, but some themes from the old Mother of God images are also found. The presence of bright colors resembles the paintings of the Italian artist Tomaso da Modena .
The motif with the image of Jesus holding the body of a carduelis was often found in Lombardy and Veneto , as well as in Siena since the beginning of the century, and also appears in the Rygrad of Queen Richeza . Compared with the ancient Italo-Byzantine Madonna - Hodegetria , where the mother points to the child as an object of worship, this composition has a noticeable shift towards greater closeness and humanization of relations between the mother and the child, which is more consistent with the XIV century. In addition, it is unusual that Mary's hair is uncovered and the body of little Jesus is bare, barely half covered with a soft shirt. The image is permeated with a system of worshipable (religious) symbols.
Restitution
The owner of the icon is the Catholic parish in Wierwierzka Bityszka. In 1936, after the exhibition in Brno, the Madonna of Veverzha was sent for restoration in Prague, where she survived wartime. Since 1958, the “Madonna of Veverzhi” was on display at the National Gallery in Prague [2] . In accordance with the Czech law on the restitution of church property, the parish in Veverzhsk-Bityszka declared its rights to this work of art and demanded restitution. According to the results of a lengthy trial, the National Gallery returned the “Madonna of Veverzhi” to the parish in Veverzhsk-Bityshka. The parish decided to transfer the icon for temporary use to the diocese of Brno to participate in the exposition of the Diocesan Museum in the local cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul .
See also
- Kholm Icon of the Mother of God
- Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God
- Zbraslav Madonna
- Madonna Litta
Notes
- ↑ Madona z Veveří (monumnet.npu.cz)
- ↑ Radio Praha (German)
Literature
- Pop I.I. Art of the Czech Republic and Moravia IX - beginning of the XVI century. - M .: Art , 1978. - 267 p. - (Essays on the history and theory of visual arts).
- Yuvalova E.P. Czech Gothic of the heyday (1350-1420) . - M .: Nauka , 1998 .-- 222 p. - ISBN 5-02-011339-5 .
- Jiří Fajt, Štěpánka Chlumská: Čechy a střední Evropa 1220-1550. Národní galerie v Praze 2014, pp. 24-28. ISBN 978-80-7035-569-5
- Albert Kutal (1971), Gothic Art in Bohemia and Moravia . Published by London, New York, Sydney, Toronto: Hamlyn, ISBN 9780600016588
- Antonín Matějček, Jaroslav Pešina: Česká malba gotická. Melantrich, Praha 1950, pp. 58-61