Italian school of the XVIII century.

Italian school of the XVIII century. Following models of ANTON VAN DYCK (Antwerp, 1599 - London, 1641).
"Madonna and Child".
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 77 x 61 cm; 87 x 71 cm (frame).

This Madonna with Bambino reveals a clear affiliation with the models developed by Anton Van Dyck during his Italian period. In them, the Flemish painter managed to fuse the emotional intensity of the northern Baroque with the monumental grace of the Italian tradition, generating a Marian canon of profound influence later on.

The present painting takes up many of the essential features of these original works by Van Dyck, adapting them to the Italian late Baroque taste. The Infant Jesus, depicted standing on a rich cobalt blue cloth, appears nude, although partially covered by a white cloth of natural and flowing disposition, which gives the scene an air of spontaneity moderated by classical composure. The child's body, with rounded flesh and soft cheeks, refers directly to the ideal of physical beauty that Van Dyck helped to define: a sweetened, sensual but restrained carnality that humanizes without trivializing.

The Virgin, for her part, wears a fiery red robe, a hue symbolically associated with divine love and which Van Dyck often used to emphasize Mary's sacred majesty. Her elevated gaze, directed upwards, introduces a note of introspection and recollection that reinforces the spiritual dimension of the scene. This gesture is typically Vandykian, present in many of his versions of the Virgin and Child, where the mother is represented not as a domestic figure, but as a mediator between the earthly and the divine.