Object details
Accession number
S12s4
Primary Creator
Giovanni Maria Mosca
(1493 - about 1573)
Full title
The Virgin of Charity
Creation Date
1522
Provenance
Commissioned by Leonardo Savina and Valerio de Vetri on behalf of Paolo da Monte (d. 1494), cutter of rock crystal, from Giovanni Maria Mosca for houses on Calle Fiubera near the Ponte dei Ferali, Venice belonging to the Scuola Grandi di Santa Maria della Carità on 1 December 1494. Mosca received 8 ducats on 6 October 1522, following the relief's completion.
No longer in situ by 1893. Perhaps moved from its original location to the Convent of the Misericordia, Venice by Pietro Pianton (d. 1864), abbot of the of the church of Santa Maria dell'Abbazia della Misericordia.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the antique dealer A. Clerle, Venice for 4,000 lire on 27 September 1897.
Marks
Inscribed (base): M.D.XXII (1522)
Inscribed (shield): the arms of Paolo da Monte (d. 1494)
Dimensions
97.5 x 101.6 x 8.9 cm (38 3/8 x 40 x 3 1/2 in.)
Display Media
Istrian stone with remains of gilding
Dimension Notes
H. overall: 65"; Main panel, H. 38 3/8", W. 40", D. 3 1/2"
Web Commentary
The severe image of the Virgin in this sculpture is deliberately archaic and Byzantine in style. More up to date are the swirling volutes of the throne, which echo the decorative pattern on the cloth of honor behind the Virgin. She holds the wheel of charity, symbol of the Scuola della Carità, a Venetian lay confraternity whose headquarters is now the Accademia. The coat of arms is that of the donor, Paolo da Monte, who was a maker of rock crystal objects. The work was originally painted and gilded by a different artist, one Zuan del Verde, and it was installed on the facade of one of the Scuola’s houses at San Zulian. Isabella Stewart Gardner discovered it after it had been moved to another church. According to Morris Carter, “she happened to go there and found workmen hacking it out, and said she would buy it if they would stop and let her have it taken out.” Giammaria Mosca was a sculptor from Padua who worked in Venice in the 1520s, then moved to Kraków, Poland.
Source: Giovanna de Appolonia, "The Virgin of Charity," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 101.
Permanent Gallery Location
East, North, and West Cloister
Bibliography
Pietro Paoletti. L'architettura e la scultura del Rinascimento in Venezia (Venice, 1893), p. 201, n1. (as by Giovanni Maria Mosca, 1522; painted and gilded by Zuan del Verde; "recently sold abroad")
Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 5. (called "Gothic Madonna")
Leo Planiscig. Venezianische Bildhauer der Renaissance (Viena, 1921), p. 274. (as by Mosca, 1522; cites Paoletti and notes that the sculpture is lost)
Ulrich Thieme, Felix Becker, et al. (eds.). Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart: unter Mitirkung von 300 Fachgelehrten des in- und Auslandes..., Vol. 25 (Leipzig, 1931), p. 175. (as by Mosca, 1522; cites Paoletti and notes that the sculpture is lost)
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 82. (as Venetian)
Krystyna Sinko-Popielowa. "Ze stuiów nad Padovanem." Biuletyn Historii Sztuki i Kultury (1939), p. 122. (as by Mosca; lost)
Zbigniew Hornung. "Czy Jan Maria zwany 'il Mosca' albo Padovano byl klasycysta?" in Wladyslaw Floryan (ed.). Rozprawy Komisji Historii Sztuki, vol. 1: Ksiega ku czci Wladyslawa Podlachy (Warsaw, 1957), p. 120. (as by Mosca; lost)
Helena Kozakiewiczowa. "Jan Maria Padovano. Zycie i dzialalnosc we Wloszech." Biuletyn Historii Sztuki i Kultury (1964), p. 154. (as by Mosca; lost)
Ulrich Middeldorf. "Three Sculptors of the Veneto Represented at Fenway Court." Fenway Court (1973), pp. 5-6, fig. 6. (as by Mosca, 1522)
Cornelius C. Vermeule III et al. Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1977), pp. 142-44, no. 176. (as by Mocsa, 1522)
Helena Kozakiewiczowa. Rzezba XVI wieku w Polsce (Warsaw, 1984), p. 93. (as by Mosca; lost)
Anne Markham Schulz. "The Cenotaph of Alvise Trevisan in SS. Giovanni e Paolo" in Andrew Morrogh (ed.). Renaissance Studies in Honor of Craig Hugh Smyth, vol. 2 (Florence, 1985), p. 418. (as by Mosca, 1522)
Alberto Rizzi. Scultura Esterna a Venezia: Corpus delle Sculture Erratiche all'aperto di Venezia e della sua Laguna (Venice, 1987), p. 83, fig. 54, p. 608, no. OAD 12a.
Anne Markham Schulz. "La scultura" in Rodolfo Pallucchini (ed.). Storia di Venezia, temi. L'arte, vol. 1 (Rome, 1994), p. 596. (as by Mosca, 1522)
Anne Markham Schulz. Giammaria Mosca, called Padovano: a Renaissance Sculptor in Italy and Poland (New Haven, 1998), pp. 6-7, 26-27, 38, 46-48, 59, 131, 145, 149, 163, 165, 175, 183, 204-06, 236-37, cat. 3, pls. 31-32. (as by Mosca, 1522)
Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 2003), p. 101, ill. (as by Mosca, 1522)
Elizabeth Anne McCauley et al. Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Venice: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, 2004), pp. 185-86, fig. 134. (as by Mosca, 1522)
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