Antonio Bellucci, 1654 Pieve, Antonio Bellucci, 1654 Pieve di Soligo - 1726 ibid BIRTH OF MARY

Oil on canvas, 107 x 64.5cm.

Attached is a report by Dario Succi, Gorizia, undated, in copy, with mention of comparative examples, such as the “La nativita` di Maria” and “Transito de Maria” in the church of Santo Stefano Protomartire in Vedano al Lambro (Milan). The report also shows that the work was created in the last decade of the 17th century, before the artist went to Vienna in 1692 to work in the Neuburg monastery.

The theme, which is not found in the Gospels, is handed down from the Legenda Aurea. Mary is shown here as a small child on a maid's lap. The unclothed upper body is slightly upright, the head is illuminated by a light. Four other maids are grouped around the central figure, the girl in the foreground kneels in front of a child's cradle. The scene in an interior with an arched view to the outside, in front of which Mary's father, the aged Joachim, stands in thanksgiving with his gaze directed upwards. The mother Anna in childbirth, lying on the left on a bed raised over steps, talking to a female. The overall scenery is covered by a bank of clouds with a floating censer, winged angel and smaller angel putti. The depiction in the upper part has a round arch with corner edges on the sides, which indicates that it is a preparatory work for a larger altarpiece.
Antonio Bellucci, was an Italian Baroque painter, studied in Venice under Andrea Celesti (1637-1712), Pietro Liberi (1614-1687) and Antonio Zanchi (1631-1722). Like other representatives of Venetian painting (Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734), Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770)), he accepted painting commissions in northern Italy, where he created magnificent frescoes for the palaces of local patrons. Oil on canvas, 107 x 64.5cm.