PASQUALINO VENETO - b. 0 ?, d. 1504 Venezia

Pasqualino Veneto os Pasqualino da Venezia, Italian painter. His oeuvre is known from only a few signed works depicting the Madonna and Child. Given the similarities in style, he was apparently the pupil or assistant of Cima da Conegliano, but he was not employed in his workshop to execute the master’s designs. Only two dated works by the artist are known to us, the Madonna and Child with Saint Mary Magdalene of 1496 in the Museo Correr, Venice, and the Madonna and Child with St John the Baptist of 1502 now in a private collection.

In 1504 he received an important commission for the Scuola della Carità in Venice, however he apparently died in the same year and the commission later went to Titian.

Virgin and Child before a Landscape

The painting depicts the Virgin and Child before a pink granite ledge, an extensive mountainous landscape beyond. The composition, while individual, is reminiscent of Cima’s Virgin and Child before a Landscape at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, with which Pasqualino would doubtless have been acquainted. The position of the Madonna here, the inclination of her head, the grip of her right hand and the Christ Child’s left foot, planted firmly on his mother’s knee, all recall Cima’s earlier invention. In keeping with Bellinian convention, the Madonna and Child are positioned behind a parapet, accentuating their elevated status in contrast to their viewer. Between graceful fingers, the Madonna holds a small quince, symbolizing rebirth and renewal, and a prophetic sign of Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection.

The panel is signed on the ledge, lower centre: PASVALINVS V P (NV in ligature).