Madonna del Parto

The Madonna del Parto (Madonna of birth ) is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance master Piero della Francesca in the 15th century.

Work history

The fresco was originally in the cemetery chapel of Santa Maria in Silvis Monterchi a small Tuscan community. Its formation time is given 1450-1475. After the building was built in 1785 damaged and destroyed in an earthquake, it was from the fresco and verstetzte it to the high altar of the new cemetery chapel of Santa Maria di Momentana. Since 1992, the Madonna del Parto is in a private museum, which is a tourist attraction in Monterchi.

Description

This image of the pregnant Madonna, widespread in the early 14th century in Tuscany, is a variation of Marie portrait. Usually, the representation of the Madonna was a book which is to be understood as an allusion to the meat to become word.

The Madonna del Parto by Piero della Francesca, however, carries neither a book, nor it has royal attributes. The fresco shows a young woman who braces her left arm on her hip to support the abdomen. She is flanked by two angels, pushing an embroidered curtain of a pavilion to the side. The pregnant Madonna wears a wide blue dress and her hair jewelry is adapted to the time of origin. On the front of the dress opens a white gap, the right hand of the woman is resting on it. Her gaze is lowered and serious.

The upper part of the fresco is not obtained.

Reception

In the 1983 film by Andrei Tarkovsky Nostalghia the fresco can be seen. The Madonna del Parto plays in Peter Henischs novel The Pregnant Madonna of 2005, a supporting role, as in Richard Hayers novel visual acuity and in the poetry of Jorie Graham San Sepolcro.