The Virgin and Child Appearing to Saint Martina
Medium
gilded bronze
Dimensions
overall: 50.8 x 38.1 cm (20 x 15 in.)
Classification
Sculpture
Department
CSD
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of David Edward Finley and Margaret Eustis Finley
Accession Number
1984.6.1
Art Historical Context
This gilded bronze relief, *The Virgin and Child Appearing to Saint Martina*, captures a moment of divine revelation in a compact, luminous format. Created around 1650, it is attributed to the Roman sculptor Cosimo Fancelli after a design by the celebrated Baroque master Pietro da Cortona. Measuring just 20 by 15 inches, the work exemplifies the intimate scale often favored for private devotion or small chapels during the Counter-Reformation, when dramatic religious imagery encouraged personal piety. Fancelli’s sensitive modeling brings Cortona’s characteristic energy to the medium of gilded ...