Madonna Litta

About this painting

This is Madonna lactans, the nursing Virgin — an image made for prayer, not a gospel scene. Her eyes rest on the child; his find the viewer. He clings to her in an uncomfortable pose, a goldfinch in his hand, the bird that stands for his Passion.

Alexander II bought it in 1865 for 100,000 francs. Milan borrowed it back in 2019 and hung it among Madonnas by Boltraffio and Marco d'Oggiono, the pupils scholars keep proposing. Its Hermitage cataloguer, Tatiana Kustodieva, records no doubt. The Tsar's Leonardo is one specialists keep taking off him.

Sources: thehistoryofart.org (Madonna Litta entry); italian-renaissance-art.com; musings-on-art.org · italian-renaissance-art.com; thehistoryofart.org · musings-on-art.org; thehistoryofart.org · Duke Antonio Litta sold the painting to Tsar Alexander II on 12 January 1865 for 100,000 francs · italian-renaissance-art.com, "Madonna Litta" (already on the card's source list; URL added and fetched) · Art Institute of Chicago, collection record, "Virgin and Child" (curatorial entry) · The National Gallery, London, Glossary, "Goldfinches" · The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, "Signs and Symbols: The Goldfinch" · Marco Carminati, "Leonardo, la Madonna Litta e la bottega," Il Sole 24 Ore, 2020 (signed review of the Poldi Pezzoli exhibition, cur. Pietro C. Marani and Andrea Di Lorenzo) · Comune di Milano, official exhibition announcement, "Milan and Leonardo 500": Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Leonardo e la Madonna Litta (2019)