Madonna del Dito Portrait from KPM, 19th Century

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KPM, Madonna del Dito, oval slightly curved porcelain picture plate of KPM Berlin in fine polychrome onglaze painting, 27 x … Read more KPM, Madonna del Dito, oval slightly curved porcelain picture plate of KPM Berlin in fine polychrome onglaze painting, 27 x 22 cm (plate size), 33 x 28.5 cm (frame), unsigned, press mark from 1825, probably last third of the 19th century. gold profiled wooden frame of the time.

- at the margins minimal paint defects, frame of the time somewhat rubbed and with superficial hairline crack at the front side



- Heavenly beauty to the fingertip -


The type of Madonna del Dito (Madonna with the finger) goes back to a painting by Carlo Dolci, now lost. Dolci had painted it on copper in the middle of the 17th century, which gives the painting the character of a fine enamel. This effect is further enhanced by painting on porcelain. As if through a soft-focus effect, Mary's lovely face seems almost transfigured, but at the same time exhibits a precision that brings the delicacy of her features into sharp relief. The effect of a melting softness with simultaneous highest precision can only be achieved in this intensity in porcelain painting and is presented here in highest perfection.

Within an oval picture field, Mary appears, dressed in a cobalt blue cloak, against a dark brown background. The robe forms a kind of niche from which her face shines out. The half-lowered eyelids make it clear that she is lost in thought. In accordance with Luke's words, "But Mary kept all these words and pondered them in her heart" (Lk 2:19), she meditates on the divine grace bestowed upon her, which gives her beauty an unfathomable depth. As the chosen Mother of God, Mary's perfected beauty is at the same time a purity untainted by the Fall. She is the temple of God, which is itself holy, which is made visible by the delicate halo-like glow around her head. The brown tonality of the background, lightened into ocher, is echoed in the brown undergarment, under which Mary's finely drawn golden hair is visible.

The dominant blue, which contributes to the profundity, is also of a symbolic nature: it stands for heaven and identifies Mary as the queen of heaven, crowned by the aura of a halo.

Her hands, held as if in prayer, are enveloped in the heavenly robe; only the finger that gives her name peeks out from under the mantle, which gives the Mother of God something human, but at the same time also something divine, since she touches the heavenly blue with her finger and influences it through her touch. An effective power that makes Mary a great intercessor.

Last but not least, the fingertip with the convincingly depicted fingernail is also an expression of the accuracy of the fine painting before the eye.

While painting on copper plates, which is comparable in its aesthetic effect, was widespread above all in the 17th and early 18th centuries, painting on porcelain had its heyday in the second half of the 19th century and was brought to its highest perfection in the Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin (KPM). See less