Gallerie d'Italia in Turin, comparing Gentileschi and Van Dyck's Madonnas with Child in Corsini Gallery

Until Jan. 12, 2025, the Gallerie d’Italia in Turin will host two masterpieces from the Corsini collection in comparison: the Madonna and Child painted in Rome by Orazio Gentileschi around 1610 and Antoon van Dyck ’s Madonna of the Straw painted in Genoa between 1625 and 1627. Both housed at the Corsini Gallery in Rome, they are now on view in the Piedmontese capital during the Christmas holidays as part of the exhibition L’Ospite illustre.

The two paintings, which constitute two different interpretations of the Madonna of Milk, were painted about 15 years apart.

Orazio Gentileschi’s Madonna and Child reflects the Caravaggesque revolution of painting “from the natural,” transforming the sacred theme into an intimate, everyday scene. The work focuses on the humanity of the relationship between mother and child, expressed in the tender exchange of glances and the gesture of the Child reaching for the Virgin’s robe. Were it not for the halo and the usual red and blue colors of the dress, the Virgin could be any girl of the people, dressed in the Roman fashion of the time, as could the Child in her garish yellow dress.

Van Dyck, on the other hand, reinterprets the theme of the Madonna and Child in a more symbolic context deeply connected to the Nativity. Following the dictates of the Council of Trent, the artist adopts a more pious and less intimate register. The head of the Sleeping Child covers Mary’s breast, but the allusion to breastfeeding is perceived in the lowered robe. The work is rich in details that anticipate Christ’s death and resurrection: the Virgin’s melancholy face, the shadow of the cloud invading the hut, and the ears of wheat in the foreground, whose stalks form a cross. This symbolism elevates the image to a level of spiritual meditation, linking the birth to the Savior’s final sacrifice.

Photo by Andrea Guermani.

Gallerie d'Italia in Turin, comparing Gentileschi and Van Dyck's Madonnas with Child in Corsini Gallery

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