U.S. #2789
29¢ Christmas Traditional
Issue Date: October 21, 1993
City: Raleigh, NC
Quantity: 500,000,000
Printed By: Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method: Lithographed and engraved
Perforations: 11
Color: Multicolored
Madonna and Child in a Landscape by Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, is one of the jewels in the collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art. Created about 1497, the painting depicts Mary and baby Jesus with a monastery and a hill town in the landscape behind them. Although Cima spent his entire career in Venice, the picturesque landscape surrounding his hometown of Conegliano was important inspiration for the artist, and he frequently used it as the background for his paintings.
Born about 1459, Cima was part of the first generation of artists who ushered in the Golden Age of Venetian painting. This period was distinguished by three qualities: exploration and refinement of the oil medium, a remarkable sensitivity for rendering light, and a profound affinity for landscape painting - all very much apparent in his painting Madonna and Child in a Landscape.
Cima painted at least four other versions of Madonna and Child in a Landscape that differ only slightly from the painting at the North Carolina Museum of Art. The other versions are found in St. Petersburg, London, Italy, and Paris.