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Title:
God the Father
Object name(s):
Picture; Italian
Brief description:
God the Father makes a blessing gesture with one hand and holds an orb, representing the earth, in the other. The small size and round shape tell us that this panel probably once decorated part of the frame of an altarpiece.Whoever painted this picture was interested in making sure that the figure looked fully three-dimensional: God seems to be grasping the orb firmly from beneath. They’ve also taken the viewer's position – standing below the image – into account, as we see the underside of God’s hand.It was once thought to be by the Florentine painter Masaccio, part of his altarpiece for Santa Maria del Carmine, Pisa (the central panel of which is now in the National Gallery’s collection). It’s not, but some elements of it -- the interest in the solidity of the figure and thoughtfulness about viewpoints -- suggest that it was made in or around Florence.
Collection:
National Gallery
Accession date:
1922-01-01
Date - earliest / single:
1922
Date - latest:
1922
Acquisition source:
Charles de Sousy Ricketts
Acquisition source:
Charles Haslewood Shannon
Associated concept:
religious imagery
Associated concept:
God the Father
Credit line:
Presented by Charles Ricketts and Charles Haslewood Shannon through the Art Fund, 1922
Current location:
Not on display
Current reproduction location:
285/983/187/mid_N-3627-00-000011.jpg
Dimension:
Height
Dimension measured part:
Overall
Dimension measurement unit:
cm
Dimension value:
12.80
Dimension:
Width
Dimension measured part:
Overall
Dimension measurement unit:
cm
Dimension value:
13.10
Form:
None
Material:
egg tempera
Material:
poplar
Material:
egg tempera on wood
Object name:
Picture; Italian (Florentine)
Object production date:
Date - period:
1400-49
Object production date:
about 1430-40
Date - earliest / single:
1430
Date - latest:
1440
Object production person:
Italian, Florentine
Object production place:
Italy
Object production place:
Florence
Other number:
NG3627
Other number type:
object number
Other number:
0GFA-0001-0000-0000
Other number type:
PID
Other number:
NG3627
Other number type:
display number
Other number:
000-04R3-0000
Other number type:
PID (NG alternative)
Other number:
ng33627
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:
Gothic
Style:
early Renaissance
User's reference:
National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings
Reference details:
68-9
Reference note:
Latest catalogue
Reference type:
reference
User's reference:
National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools
Reference details:
189
Reference note:
Previous catalogues
Reference type:
reference
User's reference:
National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools
Reference details:
146-7
Reference note:
Previous catalogues
Reference type:
reference
User's reference:
The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue
Reference details:
339
Reference note:
Key bibliography
Reference type:
reference

Persistent shareable link for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/7893c95e-e3d0-392d-9040-c6d9e8e0e879

Use licence for this record: CC BY

Attribution for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/7893c95e-e3d0-392d-9040-c6d9e8e0e879, National Gallery, CC BY

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