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Title:
The Visitation
Object name(s):
Picture; French
Brief description:
The Virgin Mary, dressed in blue, visits her older cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant with Saint John the Baptist. This episode is described in the New Testament and happens immediately after the angel visits Mary to announce her own miraculous conception of Jesus Christ.In the Bible, the women rejoice at their pregnancies, but here they look serious and concerned. Joseph, Mary's husband, is not included in biblical descriptions of the Visitation, but he often appears in paintings. Here he stands behind Mary. The elderly man descending the steps is Zacharias, Elizabeth's husband.This is probably the work of a north Italian artist or a French painter working in Italy. The artist adopted a classical painting style: the bodies are large and solid like antique sculpture. The architecture is simple with little detail apart from the door and an archway revealing a glimpse of the sky and landscape beyond.
Collection:
National Gallery
Accession date:
1944-01-01
Date - earliest / single:
1944
Date - latest:
1944
Associated concept:
religious imagery
Associated concept:
Virgin Mary
Associated concept:
Visitation of the Virgin to Saint Elizabeth
Associated concept:
St Elizabeth
Associated concept:
Gospel of St Luke
Credit line:
Bought, using the Martin Colnaghi Fund, 1944
Current location:
Not on display
Current reproduction location:
3/63/26/824/mid_N-5448-00-000013.jpg
Dimension:
Height
Dimension measured part:
Overall
Dimension measurement unit:
cm
Dimension value:
113.60
Dimension:
Width
Dimension measured part:
Overall
Dimension measurement unit:
cm
Dimension value:
218.00
Form:
None
Material:
oil
Material:
canvas
Material:
oil on canvas
Object name:
Picture; French (?)
Object production date:
Date - period:
1625-49
Object production date:
about 1630
Date - earliest / single:
1630
Date - latest:
1630
Object production person:
French or North Italian
Object production person:
French
Object production place:
France
Other number:
NG5448
Other number type:
object number
Other number:
0EDP-0001-0000-0000
Other number type:
PID
Other number:
NG5448
Other number type:
display number
Other number:
000-02NX-0000
Other number type:
PID (NG alternative)
Other number:
ng35448
Other number type:
sort number
Responsible department/section:
Main Collection
Right note:
To encourage the use and reuse of the National Gallery's collection data, they are released under the following dedications and licences: Structured data (as opposed to narrative texts) are released under a Creative Commons Zero dedication (CC0): https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Descriptions, notes and all other narrative text content are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 licence (CC BY-NC-ND): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Style:
baroque
User's reference:
National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth Century French Paintings
Reference details:
185-7
Reference note:
Latest catalogue
Reference type:
reference
User's reference:
National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools
Reference details:
125-6
Reference note:
Previous catalogues
Reference type:
reference
User's reference:
National Gallery Catalogues: French School
Reference details:
104-5
Reference note:
Previous catalogues
Reference type:
reference
User's reference:
National Gallery Catalogues: French School
Reference details:
51
Reference note:
Previous catalogues
Reference type:
reference
User's reference:
The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue
Reference details:
238
Reference note:
Key bibliography
Reference type:
reference
User's reference:
The National Gallery: 1938-1954
Reference details:
94
Reference note:
Select bibliography
Reference type:
reference
User's reference:
The neglected National Gallery : an exhibition of paintings from the lower floor /exhibition organised and booklet written by Michael Levey.
Reference details:
Cat. no. 24
Reference type:
reference

Persistent shareable link for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/6a2da78c-a328-3b2e-b268-794339797221

Use licence for this record: CC BY

Attribution for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/6a2da78c-a328-3b2e-b268-794339797221, National Gallery, CC BY

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