Göteborgs gåtfulla madonna - Maria med Jesusbarnet och Johannes Döparen på Göteborgs konstmuseum. Ikonografi, tolkning och stilanalys
This essay presents an examination of some aspects of an anonymous Italian fifteenth centurypainting, the Madonna in Adoration of the Christ Child with the Young John the Baptist, in theGothenborg Art Museum. My first aim is to understand its symbolic and religious content, and theother is to make an attempt at an attribution, or at least put the work in a likely environment,temporally and geographically. To the first end I analyse the image using Panofsky?s three stagemethod, and then make an iterpretation using the ?period eye? concept of Baxandall, especially froma religious viewpoit. Secondly, I try to define the style of the work mainly by analysing selectedparameters from a large number of fifteenth century Italian pictures found in the photo archive ofthe Federico Zeri Foundation website on the internet. I conclude that the motive is influenced byFra Filippo Lippi?s Adotation in the Forest, and that it probably was painted in Florence between1461 and 1490, although some details also suggest a connection with Siense art.