Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Hyacinth (1730–35): Artwork and History

Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Hyacinth (1730–35) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, 1696–1770).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

In this altarpiece, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo conceived the traditional subject of the Virgin and Child with interceding saints as if the two figures have miraculously appeared on an altar in a light-filled vision, surrounded by the golden clouds of heaven. The infant gives Saint Dominic a rosary; the saint had founded a preaching order that was closely associated with the use of the rosary as a spiritual exercise. The embroidered decorative scenes on the altar cloth depict the mysteries of the rosary, key events in the lives of Mary and Jesus. The devout believer would have meditated on these images while repeating the cycle of prayers marked by rosary beads.

Object facts

• Title: Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Hyacinth
• Date: 1730–35
• Artist attribution: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, 1696–1770)
• Place of origin: Italy
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 274.3 × 137.2 cm (108 × 54 in.); Framed: 303.6 × 174 × 12.7 cm (119 1/2 × 68 1/2 × 5 in.)
• Type: Painting
• Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
• Reference number: 1933.1099

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.