Madonna and Child with Four Doctors of the Church
Moretto da Brescia, 1545
Painted by Moretto between 1540 and 1545, this oil on canvas shows the Virgin and Child in a tall format nearly three metres high, surrounded by four Doctors of the Church. From left to right stand Ambrose of Milan, looking towards the Virgin; Gregory the Great and Jerome sit; and Augustine of Hippo stands, looking to the right. The arrangement creates a calm, dignified rhythm, with the figures grouped around the central pair. The documented history begins in Rome, in Santi Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso, the national church of the Lombards, where Filippo Titi first mentioned it in the second half of the seventeenth century, wrongly attributing it to Pordenone or Titian. When it entered that church is unknown. Later it passed through a Roman dealer and Joseph Fesch, uncle of Napoleon I, and was taken to Paris before returning to Rome in 1845 for auction. There its present owner acquired it for around 70,000 lire. The sale attracted wide attention in Italy, where people lamented that a work by Moretto had once been sold so cheaply.
- Painter
- Moretto da Brescia
- Date
- 1545
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 285 × 187 cm
- Museum
- Städel Museum, Frankfurt
- Genre
- religious art
- Depicts
- Mary, Gregory I, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine of Hippo, Christ Child
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