Madonna Pietra Degli Scrovigni

Madonna Pietra Degli Scrovigni

Artist: Marie Spartali Stillman (British, 1844–1927)

Date: 1884

Medium; Paper; watercolour; gouache

Collection: National Museums Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Description

Madonna Pietra Degli Scrovigni (My Lady Stone) is a character from a poem by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). The lady is described as beautiful and inspiring great passion, but 'utterly frozen… no more moved than is the stone'. The poem plays off the interaction of winter and summer, dark and light, yellow and green, themes which Stillman explores in this watercolour. She uses imagery of dead leaves, blackthorn and hellebore to symbolize coldness and winter, and the model gazes out at the viewer steadily and calmly.