Talk:Madonna of Bruges

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Visual arts

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Citations

There are no citations in this article - it needs them. For example, it says The sculpture was sold for 4,000 florins. However, in the Church in Bruges where the statue resides, it says that it was purchased by the Flemish merchant for "the considerable sum of 100 ducats. the equivalent to a year and a half's wages for an artisan at the time." Which is correct? Brymor (talk) 15:46, 8 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

100 ducats is correct. Minimal research turns up: "The ducat was the gold coin of Venice, just as the florin was the gold coin of Florence. Both had 3.5 grams of gold and were accepted all over Europe." So florins and ducats were interchangeable, and 4000 florins is worth 40 times 100 ducats, an absurd exaggeration. The 100 ducats comes from Ascanio Condivi's Life of Michelangelo (1553). Condivi knew Michelangelo, and checked some of his biography with the sculptor himself. Brymor (talk) 21:22, 11 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Citations also needed for:

1. It is believed the work was originally intended for an altar piece.

2. [It] displays the High Renaissance Pyramid style frequently seen in the works of Leonardo da Vinci during the late 1400s

Both may be true, but they need support, particularly the first. Brymor (talk) 17:07, 8 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Dimensions

3. We also need a source for the dimensions of the statue. Currently the article claims it is 200cm high. When I visited Bruges 3 weeks ago I thought the statue was significantly smaller than this. A quick scan of the web comes up with various claims for the height, ranging from 128cm to 220cm - even 230cm (128cm is the commonest). If nobody has a credible source, I will email the museum and see if they will give us the answer. Brymor (talk) 21:14, 12 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

There are multiple citations for a height of 128cm for the statue, perhaps the best one being the Victoria & Albert Museum, which purchased from the Belgian Government a plaster cast of the original made in Bruges in 1871/72. I have edited the infobox accordingly. See https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O85432/bruges-madonna-statue-michelangelo/ Brymor (talk) 16:27, 28 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Similarities with the Pietà

Clearly there are similarites with the Pietà, but also significant differences. And I am struggling with the statement The long, oval face of Mary is also reminiscent of the Pietà. First, her face is not as long as in the Pietà (the forehead is foreshortened in the Bruges work). More important are the differences. In the Pietà, her head is slanted, inviting us to sympathise with her distress over her dead son. In Bruges, her head is upright. Her stance has been described as queenly: she is the Queen of Heaven, but in the context of the work, she is facing forwards, to the future, as is her son.

I am not trying to launch into art criticism here, I merely wish to point out that stressing similarities with the Pietà is misplaced if we ignore the differences. Brymor (talk) 16:32, 8 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]