In the catalogue of the Straus Collection produced in 1945 by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, this work is attributed to Antonio Vivarini. F. Mason Perkins, who was instrumental in Percy S. Straus’s acquisition of the panel in 1925, described it as “one of the most dignified and truly religious of all [Antonio’s] representations of the Madonna. . . . an image of singular impressiveness, as well as one of unusual spiritual and decorative charm.”¹ The attribution has remained unquestioned, and Perkins’s assessment of its importance still pertains as well. Antonio Vivarini, born on the island of Murano—where his father worked in its famous glass manufacturing industry—forged a successful career as a painter in Venice. At the time of his earliest signed work, dating from 1440,² he seems to have entered into a partnership with the older Giovanni d’Alemagna (1411–1450), and their workshop soon rivaled that of the Bellini family. Like the Bellinis, the Vivarini family also produced several well-known painters besides Antonio, including his brother Bartolomeo (active c. 1450–post 1491) and Antonio’s son Alvise (1476–1503/5).³ The great scholar of Italian Renaissance Roberto Longhi dubbed Antonio Vivarini the “Masolino of Venetian painting” because of his pivotal position between late Gothic and early Renaissance art.⁴ Most scholars date this panel around 1440, but Perkins believed this work to be a product of his maturity, without specifying an actual date.⁵

According to Federico Zeri, the Straus Vivarini was the central panel of an altarpiece whose lateral panels depicted Saints Christopher, Nicholas, James, and Anthony Abbot. The present whereabouts of these panels, formerly in the Coughlan collection, is unknown (fig. 11.1).⁶ Although probably painted ten years earlier, this altarpiece comprising the Houston Madonna and the four saints would have shared great similarities with that in Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna (fig. 11.2), which was painted by Antonio Vivarini together with his brother Bartolomeo around 1450.⁷ In both cases, the enthroned Virgin is shown in a strictly frontal pose as she adores the Christ Child recumbent across her lap. The Child’s nudity is understood to presage Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, also hinted at by the crossed ankles. It is an interesting combination of the imagery of the Nativity, where the Madonna often kneels in adoration, and the Pietà, where she holds the dead body of her son on her lap. Although Vivarini was probably not the inventor of this iconography, he popularized this type through frequent repetitions, which were in turn perpetuated by Bartolomeo and Alvise Vivarini. Here, the slight awkwardness of the Child’s pose, whose head and shoulders seem unsupported, points to Vivarini’ s early struggle with capturing three-dimensional figures within the framework of a restrictive, hierarchical arrangement. The gold ground with its incised flames is a vestige of the Gothic style, as is the throne itself with its scalloped base. By contrast, the deep folds of the Madonna’s magnificent red mantle highlight the plasticity of her form in a forward-looking manner. The stylized pomegranates that decorate the mantle are the Christian symbol of the Resurrection and of eternal life. Thus, Vivarini’s exquisite work expresses deep religious meaning in every aspect of its composition.

—Helga Kessler Aurisch