Flora

Luini Bernardino and workshop

(Milan? c.1485 - Milan 1532)

The female figure crowned with roses, holding bunches of flowers in her hands, is a depiction of Flora, the ancient Italic goddess of the spring and gardens. Variously interpreted by critics as a copy of, or variant from, works by Bernardino Luini or Francesco Melzi, a faithful disciple of Leonardo, the work was eventually attributed generically to the circle of Luini.

Object details

Commentary

The female figure, depicted in a rigidly frontal pose with her head turned slightly to the left, directs her gaze towards the observer with an unflinchingly enigmatic expression. A floral headdress of neatly arranged roses adorns the wavy reddish-blond hair. The simple chemise with symmetrical folds across the breasts and sleeves knotted just above the elbow reveals the powerful physique of the figure, in which the artist has depicted Flora, an ancient Italic goddess associated with spring and gardens. The right hand, partially truncated from the lower edge of the panel, clasps a bouquet of flowers, while the left hand holds longer-stemmed flowers, creating a decoration that almost mirrors the flowers painted along the right border of the painting. The flower species are depicted in detail: iris, narcissus, columbine, veronica, red carnation, periwinkle and ornithogalum.

The painting can be identified with certainty in the collection on the basis of its precise description and matching dimensions in the inventory of 1693, which documents it in the third room of the Palazzo Borghese in Campo Marzio: ‘a painting with a Woman holding a bouquet of flowers in her hand and on her head a wreath of flowers, about 3 spans high, with a gilded frame in a panel, No. 16 by Leonardo de Vinci’, although the work currently bears the number 306 in the bottom right-hand corner, the actual correlation of which has not yet been identified (Della Pergola 1955; 1964).

The provenance of the work is unknown. Its acquisition from the confiscated paintings of Cavalier d’Arpino in 1607 (Herrmann Fiore 2000¹) has been hypothesised on the basis of an entry in the relevant inventory (‘Another small picture of a young man and a band holding several flowers without frames’) though correlation with the painting is uncertain. Della Pergola (1955) noted its presence in the 1790 inventory, identifying it with a painting of a male subject, but more consistent in its reference to Leonardo da Vinci (‘A young man with flowers in his hand, Leonardo da Vinci’).

Starting from the Fideicommissary list of 1833, the subject is described as ‘A half-figure representing Vanity’ of the ‘School of Leonardo da Vinci’, which is of particular interest as it suggests that affinities were noticed with the painting representing Vanity and Modesty, derived from Leonardo da Vinci. It is known in various versions, often under the title of Martha and Mary Magdalene (the latter identified as the ‘Vanity’) including the one formerly in the Barberini collection and later in Palazzo Sciarra (Pregny-Chambésy, Rothschild Collection), engraved in 1770 by Giovanni Volpato for Gavin Hamilton’s famous collection ‘Schola Italica Picturae’ (1773) and attributed in 1811 by Fumagalli to Bernardino Luini (see C. Quattrini, Bernardino Luini: catalogo generale delle opere, Turin 2019, pp. 404-406, cat. 166). In Venturi’s catalogue (1893), Flora is also described as Vanity but considered ‘a coarse copy of one of the figures in the painting, formerly in the Galleria Sciarra, believed to represent Bernardino Luini’s Vanity and Modesty.

Critics have commented on several occasions, alternately recognising echoes of the circle of Luini or Francesco Melzi in the painting. Cantalamessa, in his handwritten notes to Venturi’s catalogue, initially emphasised the features that, despite the similarity of the faces, distinguished Vanity from the Borghese Flora, in particular the frontal pose of the Flora’s body. He agreed with the opinion of Corrado Ricci who had initially suggested it be credited to Francesco Melzi due to affinities with the Colombina or Flora in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. This work itself has been subject to debate - some critics have likened it to the ‘Pomona’ of Melzi’s famous Berlin panel (Vertumnus and Pomona, Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, no. 222), but more recently some scholars have attributed it to Luini (Kustodieva 1998; Delieuvin 2019).

In an additional note of 21 April 1912, however, Giulio Cantalamessa, referring to Luca Beltrami’s monograph (1911), indicated Luini’s Hampton Court Flora (Royal Collection, inv. 405474) as the source of inspiration for the Borghese painting: a reference that was later accepted by Suida (1929) and Della Pergola (1955), who, however, upheld the attribution of the work as a ‘variant by Francesco Melzi’. The reference to Melzi, also rejected by Longhi (1928), was later accepted by Hevesy (1952), Marani (1998) and Herrmann Fiore (2000²; 2006).

On account of the very close affinities of the Borghese Flora with the Hampton Court painting, currently linked to the name of Luini or his sphere, Ottino dalla Chiesa (1956), Shearman (1983), Vezzosi (1983), Kustodieva (1998), Delieuvin (2019) and Minozzi (2016) have argued in favour of such an attribution.  

Radiographic tests carried out in 2000 by ENEA revealed some major alterations, suggesting the initial creation of a nude figure, to which a chemise with a wide V-shaped neckline was added, which in turn was modified into the version currently on view (Herrmann Fiore 2000²). It has also been ascertained that the wooden support, consisting of three vertical panels, which was restored at an earlier stage by inserting two wooden butterflies in the lower part to secure the joints between the boards, was subsequently reduced, particularly on the left side and the lower border.

Infrared reflectography analysis carried out in 2016 by the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France on the occasion of the exhibition Léonard en France. Le maître et ses élèves 500 ans après la traversée des Alpes. 1516 – 2016, (Minozzi 2016) revealed new elements of particular interest for attribution purposes. Indeed, from a study of the analysis, shared with Vincent Delieuvin, it became clear that the outline of what was at first thought to be a halo was in fact the traces of a coiffure very similar to that of the famous Portrait of a Lady by Bernardino Luini, dated between 1520 and 1525 (Washington, National Gallery of Art, inv. 1937.1. 37). Indeed, reflectographic imaging clearly show the profile of the headdress, the hair that clearly frames the face with the ringlets emerging from the coiffure on the left side of the face, in a manner that is strikingly similar to the Washington portrait. Moreover, the facial features are not far from those of the Borghese Flora, while the choice of placing the figure against a dark background to highlight its profile is also analogous (Castellano 2016). 

The results of the research suggest a close correlation with Bernardino Luini. While the chequered conservation history of the panel in no way allows the calls the hand of the master into question, the painting, nevertheless, seems to belong rather to the sphere of his workshop, where templatws were probably available, reworked in various variants on themes of late Leonardesque inspiration, including profane and subtly erotic subjects, appreciated by private patrons.  

Marina Minozzi