Madonna of the Rest

Roberto Ferruzzi was born in Sibenik, Dalmatia, in 1853 from Italian parents, but, when he was only 4 years old, he came back to Venice and then to Luvigliano (Padua) where he lived until his death in 1934. The original version of this famous  painting has been lost:  bought from an American, it sank with the  boat during the transportation. Somebody thinks it was probably caused by a storm, while  somebody else  thinks it might have been caused by a torpedoing of the Germans during the second world war.

A young girl of Luvigliano (Padua), Angelina Cian, a 15 years old girl, holding her young brother John of just few months. Ferruzzi was so captured by such a sweet vision, that felt the stong feeling to fix this image forever on a canvas, with the aim to represent  the Motherhood. 

At that time, in big families, the eldest girls had to take care of their youngest brothers or sisters and were forced to grow up very quickly and become immediately a sort of "mothers".

A sort of extraordinary sweetness transpire from the representation of this Motherhood.

Detail of weaving