View source for Head of the Virgin (Pittoni)

{{Infobox painting
| image=Donation_Ballabio_Pittoni.jpg
| alt=See adjacent text.
| image_size=250px
| title=Head of the Virgin
| italic title=yes
| other_language_1=Italian
| other_title_1=La Testa della Vergine
| other_language_2=French
| other_title_2=La Tête de Vierge
| artist=[[Giambattista Pittoni]]
| year=c. 1730
| type=[[Oil painting|Oil]] on [[Populus|poplar]]
| imperial_unit      = in  <!-- Note: this parameter must either use the value given or not be included -->
| height_imperial=44	
| width_imperial=35
| city=[[Strasbourg]]
| museum=[[Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg]]}}
'''''Head of the Virgin''''' (also known as '''''La Tête de Vierge''''' or '''''La Testa della Vergine''''') is a 18th-century [[portrait]] [[painting|painted]] in [[oil painting|oil]] by [[Giambattista Pittoni]], made around [[1730]], during the [[Rococo]] in [[Venice]], [[Italy]], 
exhibited at the [[Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.musees.strasbourg.eu/oeuvre-musees-strasbourg/-/entity/id/12508176?_eu_strasbourg_portlet_entity_detail_EntityDetailPortlet_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.musees.strasbourg.eu%2Foeuvre-musees-strasbourg%3Fp_p_id%3Dcom_liferay_asset_publisher_web_portlet_AssetPublisherPortlet_INSTANCE_Zi7qOjSeiAFL%26p_p_lifecycle%3D0%26p_p_state%3Dnormal%26p_p_mode%3Dview%26p_p_auth%3DWdG7ewxO, |title=''Tête de Vierge'', Giovanni Battista Pittoni, Fiche du musée de Strasbourg. |access-date=2020-05-21 |archive-date=2022-04-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408065424/https://www.musees.strasbourg.eu/oeuvre-musees-strasbourg/-/entity/id/12508176?_eu_strasbourg_portlet_entity_detail_EntityDetailPortlet_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.musees.strasbourg.eu%2Foeuvre-musees-strasbourg%3Fp_p_id%3Dcom_liferay_asset_publisher_web_portlet_AssetPublisherPortlet_INSTANCE_Zi7qOjSeiAFL%26p_p_lifecycle%3D0%26p_p_state%3Dnormal%26p_p_mode%3Dview%26p_p_auth%3DWdG7ewxO, |url-status=dead }}</ref> Many people<ref>Franca Zava Boccazzi: ''Pittoni'', Mondadori Electa, 1979, ISBN 884351220X</ref> Think Head of the Virgin's eyes glance is mysterious, as at the time it was not portrayed with a low gaze.

== Description ==
The remote pictorial touch, the delicate palette, are typical Pittoni characteristics. The work is the detail of the great painting that can be found in the [[National Gallery]] in London titled «The Nativity with God the Father and the Holy Spirit». The painting could be a cover created for sale by Pittoni or a preparatory sketch (''The [[Croquis]]'') for the altarpiece as for the [[Head of the Virgin (Pittoni, Berlin)|similar work from Berlin]].
[[File:The Nativity with God the Father and the Holy Ghost.jpg|right|thumb|«The Nativity with God the Father and the Holy Spirit», from the [[National Gallery]] in London.]]

==Interpretation==
The closed eyes that look down, for the time, a unique and rare representation of the Madonna, which is also repeated in the Pittoni [[The Nativity with God the Father and the Holy Ghost]] of the London National Gallery museum. 

It is possible that Pittoni looks for further mystical strength in it, exasperating the interpretation of the critic Alexander Nagel on Leonardo da Vinci's "Head of a Woman" in which "the eyes do not focus on any outward object, and they give the impression that they will remain where they are: they see through the filter of an inner state, rather than receive immediate impressions from  the outside world. It is the attitude of being suspended in a state of mind beyond specific thought{{mdash}}unaware, even, of its own body...here an inner life is suggested by a new order of pictorial effects, without recourse to action or narrative."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/momentofcaravagg0000frie|url-access=registration|quote=Leonardo La Scapigliata.|page=[https://archive.org/details/momentofcaravagg0000frie/page/73 73]|first=Michael|last=Fried|title=The Moment of Caravaggio|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2010}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Other websites==
* [https://www.musees.strasbourg.eu/oeuvre-musees-strasbourg/-/entity/id/12508176?_eu_strasbourg_portlet_entity_detail_EntityDetailPortlet_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.musees.strasbourg.eu%2Foeuvre-musees-strasbourg%3Fp_p_id%3Dcom_liferay_asset_publisher_web_portlet_AssetPublisherPortlet_INSTANCE_Zi7qOjSeiAFL%26p_p_lifecycle%3D0%26p_p_state%3Dnormal%26p_p_mode%3Dview%26p_p_auth%3DWdG7ewxO, ''Tête de Vierge'', Giovanni Battista Pittoni, Fiche du musée de Strasbourg] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408065424/https://www.musees.strasbourg.eu/oeuvre-musees-strasbourg/-/entity/id/12508176?_eu_strasbourg_portlet_entity_detail_EntityDetailPortlet_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.musees.strasbourg.eu%2Foeuvre-musees-strasbourg%3Fp_p_id%3Dcom_liferay_asset_publisher_web_portlet_AssetPublisherPortlet_INSTANCE_Zi7qOjSeiAFL%26p_p_lifecycle%3D0%26p_p_state%3Dnormal%26p_p_mode%3Dview%26p_p_auth%3DWdG7ewxO, |date=2022-04-08 }}. 

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:1730s paintings]]
[[Category:Paintings by Giambattista Pittoni]]