Doge Alvise Mocenigo and Family before the Madonna and Child

c. 1575

Jacopo Tintoretto

Painter, Venetian, 1518 or 1519 - 1594

Seven men, women, and children with pale, peachy skin flank a woman surrounded by a halo of light, sitting on a throne and holding a nearly nude baby boy in her lap in this long, horizontal painting. The wide throne sits on a low platform and reaches off the top edge of the canvas. The body of the woman sitting there, Mary, faces us and she turns her head to look down to our left with her lips closed. She wears a loose, dusky rose-pink dress under an aquamarine-blue cloak. A translucent white veil covers her chestnut-brown hair and shoulders, and is tucked into the neckline of her dress. Her right hand, to our left, is raised with the palm down, and she supports the hip and thigh of the baby, Jesus, with her other hand. With his hips facing us, Jesus leans to our right as he twists to hold both hands, palm out, in that direction. He has curly blond hair, and he turns his head back over his shoulder to look down at the people to our left. He has brown eyes under delicately arched brows, flushed cheeks, and his pink lips curve up in a slight smile. Though he appears to be nude at first glance, closer inspection shows he wears a sheer white, short-sleeved, knee-length tunic. Golden rays radiate from Mary and Jesus's bodies and mostly obscure the throne behind them. Two men are shown to our left of the throne and two men and a woman are shown to our right. Mary and Jesus look to our left at an older man with a long, gray beard. He kneels with his body angled to our right with both hands lifted palms down at waist height. He looks at us from the corners of his dark eyes under arched brows. He wears a voluminous, honey-brown robe lined with black spotted, white fur and covered over the shoulders and arms with a white fur cape. His matching brown cap has a pattern around the edge, perhaps beading. Standing behind the kneeling man to our left is a bareheaded man with a long, pointed gray beard and short-cropped, gray hair. He also looks out at us with brown eyes, which are lined at the corners with wrinkles. His robe is burgundy red and also lined with black and white fur down the front and around long, drooping sleeves. To our right of the throne, a woman with blond hair in tight curls kneels with her hands together in prayer at her chest. She looks at us with gray eyes set in a round face. Her full robe is patterned with sage-green vines and leaves against an amber-brown background, and is lined along the sleeves and down the front with maroon red. Behind her and to our right stand two young men with short brown hair, wearing dark brown robes with high, white collars. The man to our left has a thin mustache and the other is cleanshaven, and they both look off to our left. Two winged angels sit on the platform to either side of Mary’s feet, which is strewn with roses. The wings of both angels are painted with golden yellow and rust red. To our left, the child-like angel has short, brown hair and wears a teal-blue jacket with a white ruffle at the neck. Coral-red drapery covers the legs over bare feet, and the angel plays a violin. The angel to our right of Mary’s feet is a little taller, and has curly brown hair. Wearing butter yellow and moss green, that angel strums a lute and looks out at us with dark eyes. To either side of the throne, the room is lined with a balustrade and columns, framing a landscape with rolling green hills and ice-blue mountains. White clouds are streaked across the vivid blue sky.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Alvise Mocenigo was the fourth member of his family to become doge (elected chief of state) of Venice. He sits on the lower left wearing symbols of his office: an ermine cloak and Venetian ducal hat. It was custom for large paintings like this to show officials and their families worshipping or being presented to the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. Such paintings were meant to celebrate and enhance family power.

Opposite Mocenigo is his wife Loredana. The older man standing at left is the doge’s brother Giovanni. And the two young men at right are Giovanni’s sons Tommaso and Alvisetto. Traditionally, the angel musicians also represented family members, but we have no evidence of that in this case.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 24

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 216 × 416 cm (85 1/16 × 163 3/4 in.)
    framed: 252.8 × 452.2 × 12.7 cm (99 1/2 × 178 × 5 in.)
    framed weight: 154.223 kg (340 lb.); unframed weight: 143 lb

  • Accession

    1961.9.44

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Series:  Italian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century

Scholarly Article:  Italian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century: Doge Alvise Mocenigo and Family before the Madonna and Child, c. 1575

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Probably originally at the Palazzo Mocenigo at San Samuele, Venice. Alvise I Mocenigo, called "Toma" [b. 1608], Palazzo Mocenigo at San Samuele, Venice, by 1648.[1] Possibly acquired in Italy in the early 19th century by a member of the Gouvello family, France; by inheritance to Pierre-Armand-Jean-Vincent-Hippolyte, marquis de Gouvello de Keriaval [1782-1870], Château de Kerlévénan, Sarzeau (department Morbihan in Britanny), France; by inheritance in his family; sold 1952 through (Landry and de Somylo) to (M. Knoedler and Co., London, New York and Paris) on joint account with (Pinakos, Inc. [Rudolf Heinemann], New York); sold 1953 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1961 to NGA.
[1] ] Carlo Ridolfi, Le maraviglie dell’arte, overo Le vite de gl'illustri pittori veneti, e dello stato, 2 vols., Venice, 1648: 2:44; Carlo Ridolfi, Le maraviglie dell’arte, overo Le vite de gl'illustri pittori veneti, e dello stato, edited by Detlev von Hadeln, 2 vols., Berlin, 1914-1924: 2:53. Tracy Cooper's identification of the owner Ridolfi cites as "Toma Mocenigo" is explained in her article "The Trials of David: Triumph and Crisis in the Imagery of Doge Alvise I Mocenigo," Records of Activities and Research Reports 18 (June 1997-1998), Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington: 66-67.
[2] For the provenance from the marquis to the sale to the Kress Foundation, see the invoice from M. Knoedler & Co. dated 2 June 1953, and M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Stock book no. 10, p. 83, no. A4949, and Sales book, p. 17. The invoice and copies from the Knoedler Records are in NGA curatorial files. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/669.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1994

  • Jacopo Tintoretto--I Ritratti [Jacopo Tintoretto: Portraits], Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1994, no. 35, repro.

2018

  • Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia and Palazzo Ducale, Venice; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2018-2019, fig. 144.

Bibliography

1648

  • Ridolfi, Carlo. Le maraviglie dell’arte, overo Le vite de gl'illustri pittori veneti, e dello Stato. 2 vols. Venice, 1648: 2:44.

1914

  • Ridolfi, Carlo. Le maraviglie dell’arte, overo Le vite de gl'illustri pittori veneti, e dello Stato (Venice, 1648). Edited by Detlev von Hadeln. 2 vols. Berlin, 1914-1924: 2(1924):53.

1915

  • Osmaston, Francis P. B. The Art and Genius of Tintoret. 2 vols. London, 1915: 169.

1926

  • Pittaluga, Mary. “Opere del Tintoretto smarrite o di malsicuro identificazione.” L’Arte 29 (1926): 89 (as lost).

1954

  • Pallucchini, Rodolfo. “Un capolavoro del Tintoretto: la Madonna del Doge Alvise Mocenigo.” Arte Veneta 8 (1954): 222-235, figs. 235, 237, 240, 242, 244, 245, 248, 249.

1956

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 176, no. 70, repro.

  • Walker, John. "The Nation's Newest Old Masters." The National Geographic Magazine 110, no. 5 (November 1956): 622, color repro. 632.

1957

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School. 2 vols. London, 1957: 1:176.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 206, repro.

1961

  • Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 130, repro. pl. 120, 121.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 308, repro.

1964

  • Savini Branca, Simona. Il collezionismo veneziano del Seicento. Padua, 1964: 243.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 128.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 114, repro.

1969

  • Rossi, Paola. “Una recente pubblicazione sul Tintoretto e il problema della sua ritrattistica.” Arte Veneta 23 (1969): 269.

1970

  • De Vecchi, Pierluigi. L’opera completa del Tintoretto. Milan, 1970: 114, no. 204.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 201.

  • Pallucchini, Rodolfo. “Due nuove opere giovanili di Jacopo Tintoretto.” Arte Veneta 26 (1972): 54.

1973

  • Zeri, Federico, and Elizabeth Gardner. Italian Paitnings. A Catalogue of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Venetian School. New York, 1973: 70-71.

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 56-57, fig. 99-101.

1974

  • Rossi, Paola. Jacopo Tintoretto: I ritratti. Venice, 1974: 13, 67-68, fig. 161.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 342, repro.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:473-474; 2:pl. 338, 338A.

  • Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 41, pl. 25.

1982

  • Pallucchini, Rodolfo, and Paola Rossi. Tintoretto: le opere sacre e profane. 2 vols. Venice, 1982: 1:30, 77, 79, 80, 101, 104, 195-197, 199, 222, 236-237; 2:pls. 421-423.

1983

  • Wolters, Wolfgang. Der Bilderschmuck des Dogenpalastes: Untersuchungen zur Selbstdarstellung der Republik Venedig im 16. Jahrhundert. Wiesbaden, 1983: 124, fig. 103.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 230, no. 288, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 393, repro.

1987

  • Wolters, Wolfgang. Storia e politica nei dipinti di Palazzo Ducale: aspetti dell’autocelebrazione della Repubblica di Venezia nel Cinquecento. Translated by Benedetta Heinemann Campana. Venice, 1987: 123, fig. 102.

1991

  • Stefaniak, Regina. “Raphael’s Santa Cecilia: A Fine and Private Vision of Virginity.” Art History 14 (1991): 371, n. 48.

1993

  • Weber, Annette. Venezianische Dogenporträts des 16. Jahrhunderts. Sigmaringen, 1993: fig. 53.

1995

  • Rearick, W. R. “Reflections on Tintoretto as a Portraitist.” Artibus et Historiae 16, no. 31 (1995): 62.

  • Polleross, Friedrich. “Della Bellezza & della Misura & della Convenevolezza: Bemerkungen zur venezianischen Porträtmalerei anläßlich der Tintoretto-Ausstellungen in Venedig und Wien.” Pantheon 53 (1995): 40, fig. 12 (detail).

1998

  • Cooper, Tracy. "The Trials of David: Triumph and Crisis in the Imagery of Doge Alvise I Mocenigo." Records of Activities and Research Reports 18 (June 1997-1998), Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington: 64-68.

1999

  • Goffen, Rona. “Crossing the Alps: Portraiture in Renaissance Venice.” In Renaissance Venice and the North: Crosscurrents in the Time of Bellini, Dürer, and Titian. Edited by Bernard Aikema and Beverly Louise Brown. Exh. cat. Palazzo Grassi, Venice. Milan, 1999: 120.

2005

  • Cooper, Tracy E. Palladio’s Venice: Architecture and Society in a Renaissance Republic. New Haven, 2005: 193-195, 200, 320 n. 118, 332 n. 41, 333 nn. 42 and 43, fig. 197.

2007

  • Cooper, Tracy E. “Patricians and Citizens.” In Venice and the Veneto. Edited by Peter Humfrey. New York, 2007: 155, fig. 98.

  • Falomir, Miguel, ed. Tintoretto. Exh. cat. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2007: 111, 328 fig. 170, 329 (the figure caption incorrectly gives the NGA accession number as 1491.9.44).

2008

  • Gibellini, Cecilia. L'immagine di Lepanto: la celebrazione della vittoria nella letteratura e nell'arte veneziana. Venice, 2008: 53, 167-169, fig. 37.

2009

  • Echols, Robert, and Frederick Ilchman. “Toward a New Tintoretto Catalogue, with a Checklist of Revised Attributions and a New Chronology.” In Jacopo Tintoretto: Actas del congreso internacional/Proceedings of the International Symposium, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, February 26-27, 2007. Madrid, 2009: 126, no. 158.

2014

  • Paul, Benjamin. “Convertire in se medesimo questo flagello: autocritica del Doge Alvise Mocenigo nel bozzetto di Tintoretto per il dipinto votivo a Palazzo Ducale.” In Celebrazione e autocritica: la Serenissima e la ricerca dell’identità veneziana nel tardo Cinquecento. Edited by Paul Benjamin. Rome, 2014: 134 n. 25.

Wikidata ID

Q20176763

You may be interested in

Loading Results