The Virgin of Carmel

religious

Moretto was a painter influenced by Lombard naturalism but he preferred the intimate, muted study of reality characteristic of Foppa, Borgognone and Savoldo to the exuberant realism of Romanino. Among the greatest works of his youth can certainly be placed the 'Virgin of Carmel' who is presented in the powerful and carefully gauged monumentally of a Madonna of Mercy with the figures of the Carmelites the Blessed Angelo and St. Simon Stock at her sides and a crowd of devotees below, probably members of the Brescian family the Ottoboni.

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About the Artist

Moretto Da Brescia

1498 – 1554

Moretto da Brescia (originally Alessandro Bonvicino), Italian painter, active mainly in his native Brescia and the neighbourhood. He was a pupil of Titian and certainly his influence is apparent in Moretto's work. He was the leading Brescian painter of his day and had a large practice as a painter of altarpieces and other religious works, the best of which display an impressive gravity and a poetic feeling for nature ( St Giustina with a Donor). However, his portraits, although much less numerous, are considered to be generally of higher quality and of greater importance historically. It seems likely that he introduced the independent full-length portrait to Italy, for although Vasari credits Titian with this distinction. Moretto's Portrait of a Gentleman of 1526 in the National Gallery, London, antedates any known example by Titian by several years. He passed on the thoughtful qualities to his pupil Moroni.

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