Record details

• generalData.title

  Nursing Madonna and Saint Bernard de Fontaine

• generalData.creationDate

  segle XVI

• technicalData.measurements

  55 x 44 cm

• technicalData.description

  Oil on board

• technicalData.complementaryDescription

  ADRIAEN ISENBRANT (1485-1551) and workshop
  This particular work is a composition of the Virgin Mary giving her breast to the child Jesus. In front of them is San Bernardo de Fontaine, known as Bernardo de Claraval, who was a French Cistercian monk and holder of the abbey of Claraval. He is an essential personality in the history of the Catholic Church and the most notable of his century. Exercising a great influence in the religious and political life of Europe. With him, the Cistercian order expanded throughout Europe and occupied the forefront of religious influence. His contributions have shaped Christian religiosity, Gregorian chant, monastic life and the expansion of Gothic architecture.
  
  The composition, especially the figures of the Virgin and the Child, is based on the prototype of Gerard David, for example, in the magnificent work "The Rest On The Flight into Egypt", which represents the Virgin and the child resting during the his journey from Egypt
  However, the versions attributed to Isenbrandt's workshop alter David's original composition: they keep the Virgin and Child, but the landscape in the background is transformed into a richly ornamented Renaissance interior.
  We know that this work comes from the collection of Maria Esclasans (1875-1947), one of the great Catalan antique dealers in history, considered a very relevant person in the context of the art and antiques market in Barcelona. This piece was purchased in San Sebastián in the summer of 1947. He paid 225,000 pesetas and it was the last work he bought in his lifetime. He died that same year, so his daughters closed the operation the following year. Many works passed through his hands, most of them of great quality, but he died without knowing that this Flemish painting could be the most important.