Madonna and The Child

Painting from the museum’s collection depicting Virgin Mary reading a book, holding a naked Child standing on her knees (on a nappy), holding a cross as a symbol of his future passion. The child looks at the viewer. The nappy is a foreshadowing of the Christ’s mortal shroud. Mother and Child are depicted against a vast landscape. The colours of the painting are light, with a predominance of blue. It is attributed to the Italian painter Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (born in 1610 in Viterbo, died in 1662 in Viterbo). Romanelli was a representative of Baroque who used bright, luminous colours in his religious and mythological paintings. At the age of 14, he went to Rome, where he studied painting with Pietro da Cortone. It is there that he was taken under auspices by Cardinal Francesco Barberini. In 1639, the painter became the director of the Academy of Saint Luke, bringing together prestigious artists. After the election of Innocent X as pope, the cardinal’s influence waned and he could no longer look after Romanelli. The painter accepted Mazarini’s invitation and went to the court of Louis XIV, where he became a portraitist of, among others, the king’s mother. The painting kept in Łańcut, framed in a wide wooden gilded frame decorated with stylised lesbian cymatium, is displayed in the bedroom of the Gala Apartment on the first floor of the castle.