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Apotheosis of Madonna

Martin Johann Schmidt

Basic information

ID: Ж-340
Author: Martin Johann Schmidt
Name: Apotheosis of Madonna
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 64.8 x 40.5

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: religious
Plot: The Virgin Mary
Provenance: Collection of Lviv City Gallery
Exposition: Potocki Palace

Information about author

Author: Martin Johann Schmidt
Artist's lifetime: 1718–1801
Country: Austria
Biography: Martin Johann Schmidt, called Kremser Schmidt or Kremserschmidt, was one of the outstanding Austrian painters of the late Baroque/Rococo, along with Franz Anton Maulbertsch. He was born at Grafenworth, Lower Austria, to the sculptor Johannes Schmidt. A pupil of Gottlieb Starmayr, the artist spent most of his life at Stein, where he mainly worked in churches and monasteries. However, the evolution of his style after 1750 shows that he had either spent a formative period in northern Italy or at least had extensive contact with northern Italian works of art. Rembrandt and the great masters of the Austrian Baroque, Paul Troger and Daniel Gran, also influenced his works. Despite not receiving formal academic training, in 1768, Martin Johann Schmidt became a member of the imperial academy at Vienna due to his artistic merits, which had already been recognised by a wider public inside and outside of Austria by that time. The author primarily painted devotional images for private prayer and churches, including many large altar paintings.

Object description

In the centre of the composition, the painting depicts Madonna sitting with Jesus on her lap. There is a radiant halo around Christ's head. Around them, the following figures are depicted: in the foreground on the left, a seated figure of a saint with their back to the viewer, and on the right, a figure of a saint with his hands together in prayer. Possibly, this is Saint Bernard. In the background, amidst billowing clouds, a white dove with radiance (a symbol of the Holy Spirit) is depicted, with figures of cupids above it. Saint Bernard came from a noble family. At the age of twenty, he joined the Cistercian order, where he became known for his asceticism. In 1115, he founded a monastery in Clairvaux, where he became an abbot. Bernard of Clairvaux adhered to a mystical direction in theology. He actively fought against heresies and freethought, wrote the first rule for spiritual chivalric orders, and introduced a special devotion to the Virgin Mary, which led to depictions of him adoring the Virgin Mary and Child. The painting was received from the Lviv City Gallery collection as "Apotheosis of the Madonna" but was later reattributed as "Saint Bernard Adoring the Virgin Mary with Child".

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Apotheosis of Madonna

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