The Virgin in Prayer
The original, as its museum records it
Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.
The file this print is made from
Sizes
About this painting
Her hands are pressed together, her head bowed over them, and there is nowhere else for the eye to go. Sassoferrato sealed the exits: three colours, red, white, blue, against a ground so dark nothing distracts from her head.
No lily, no child, nothing to name her. The blue does: ultramarine, from Afghan lapis, the costliest blue pigment, often used for Mary's robes, the Gallery says, to signify her sacred status.
Commissioning patrons often paid for the exact quantity used. Sassoferrato's buyers, largely unrecorded, bought ready-made; Richard Simmons bequeathed this one in 1846. No patron's name attaches to the blue.
Sources: The National Gallery, London, NG200 object page · Gerard Vaughan, 'Sassoferrato at the National Gallery of Victoria,' NGV Art Journal 43 (2003) · The National Gallery, London, 'Journey through colour', Making Colour exhibition (2014) · Stephanie C. Leone, catalogue entry on Giovanni Battista Salvi (Sassoferrato), 'Madonna of the Cherubs', McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College · The National Gallery, London, Sassoferrato, 'The Virgin and Child Embracing', NG740, object page · National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Sassoferrato, 'Madonna in prayer', c. 1640-50, acc. 2002.126, collection object page · The National Gallery, London, 'Colour Stories: Blue'. · The National Gallery, London, Giovanni Bellini, 'The Virgin and Child', NG280.
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 4,226 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.