Madonna Lactans, c. 1489-92 - Cima da Conegliano & Workshop

We are pleased to present a newly re-discovered work of museum quality, returned to the art historical canon after spending decades in a private Expertise and Attribution:
The artwork is accompanied by a comprehensive expertise report dated November 7, 2025, written by the eminent British art historian and world-leading specialist on Venetian painting, Professor Peter Humfrey, author of the definitive catalogue raisonné of the artist (Cima da Conegliano, Cambridge, 1983). This painting represents a major contribution to the study of the Venetian High Renaissance, depicting the Virgin breastfeeding the Infant Christ (a rare iconographic type for the master known as Madonna Lactans or Galaktotrophousa).

Expertise and Attribution:
The artwork is accompanied by a comprehensive expertise report dated November 7, 2025, written by the eminent British art historian and world-leading specialist on Venetian painting, Professor Peter Humfrey, author of the definitive catalogue raisonné of the artist (Cima da Conegliano, Cambridge, 1983).

Based on stylistic analysis and recent conservation (2025), Professor Humfrey dates the painting to the artist's early period—specifically the first half of the 1490s (c. 1489–1492). The expert classifies it as a collaborative work by Cima da Conegliano and his workshop, emphasizing that the master himself played a significant role in its design and conception. Professor Humfrey explicitly notes that the re-emergence of this painting marks a significant contribution to our further knowledge and understanding of the master's oeuvre, as it stands as the earliest known instance of this breastfeeding iconography in Cima's entire output.

Provenance and Exhibition History:
• Before 1954: Pierrard Collection, Brussels.
• 1954: Exhibited at the celebrated landmark exhibition "De Madonna in de Kunst" ("The Madonna in Art") at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerpen), held from August 28 to November 30, 1954. It is recorded in the official catalogue under No. 607 (attributed to the "School of Bellini", which was a common mid-20th-century attribution for early works by Cima). The original 1954 exhibition label remains affixed to the back of the stretcher.
• Present: Private Collection.

Stylistic Features:
The composition displays all the classic and most recognizable hallmarks of Cima da Conegliano's hand:
• The foreground parapet, executed in imitation of noble red Verona marble (rosso di Verona), upon which the Virgin rests.
• The green cloth of honour (partly drawn curtain) opening up to the landscape behind her.
• The exquisite, poetic background landscape featuring a winding path and a river leading to distant mountains, evocative of Cima's native region in the foothills of the Dolomites.
• The head of the Child shows a direct compositional similarity (indicating the use of the same cartoon) to Cima's Virgin and Child in the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris. The features of the Virgin are stylistically close to his Madonnas in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Condition and Framing:
Excellent collectable condition. In 2025, the painting underwent a meticulous and careful professional conservation, fully revealing the master's original, vivid palette. The painting is housed in a magnificent carved and gilded Renaissance-style frame that beautifully enhances its monumental and noble character.