Madonna and Child

Salvi Giovan Battista called Sassoferrato

(Sassoferrato 1609 - Rome 1685)

The painting was created around the middle of the 17th century by the Marche painter, Giovanni Battista Salvi, known as Sassoferrato. It is one of the many interpretations that the artist, throughout his life, adapted from Raphael’s highly successful Madonna della Torre (Mackintosh Madonna), today in the National Gallery in London. The canvas became part of the Borghese collection in 1818 when Prince Camillo purchased it from Ignazio Grossi.

Object details

Commentary

The work, painted by Giovanni Battista Salvi, called Sassoferrato, is inspired by Raphael’s Madonna della Torre (Mackintosh Madonna), which came from the collection of the Duke of Orleans and is conserved in the National Gallery in London. There are numerous versions of Raphael’s work, some more, some less faithful, bearing witness to the enormous success the subject has enjoyed since its creation in the early 16th century. 

Sassoferrato’s revival is not a faithful copy. It has some elements that vary significantly from the original, such as the background, which the artist chose to render neutral without reproducing the landscape of the prototype, but also the Madonna’s dress, as confirmed by the draping of the sleeves, rendered more abundantly (Stefani 2000, p. 356). 

The pose of the two figures is essentially unchanged, as are the respective emotional attitudes revealed in their faces: the Child, in the act of embracing his mother, turns towards the viewer with an almost playful expression, while the Virgin, with statue-like steadiness, keeps her eyes downwards.

The Marche artist used Raphael’s subject a number of times, always with a personal interpretation. Other examples include the version conserved at the Candelara in Pesaro (private collection), shown for the first time in an exhibition in Cesena in 2009, and the version at the Accademia Carrara di Bergamo, of a similar quality (Il Sassoferrato. Un preraffaellita tra i puristi del Seicento, exhibition catalogue [Cesena, Galleria Comunale d’Arte, 2009], curated by M. Pulini, A. Giovanardi, A. Marchi, Milan 2009, cat. 21). There is an iconographical variation of the subject in the Madonna col Bambino e il libro  [Madonna and Child and the Book], a version of which was displayed at the above-mentioned exhibition in Cesena. In that work, the artist reproduced the figures of the two protagonists, completely changing the setting and adding significant details, such as a book in the Virgin’s hand and a cushion under the Infant’s foot (Il Sassoferrato, cit., cat. 22)

The work, which can be dated to the mid-17th century, became part of the Borghese collection at the end of 1818 when Prince Camillo purchased it from Ignazio Grossi. It appears in the fideicommissary inventory of 1833 with the correct attribution to Salvi.

In 1980, François De Lepinay connected the Borghese painting to a drawing formerly conserved in the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich, stolen in 1965 (De Lepinay 1980, pp. 67-84).

Pier Ludovico Puddu