Madonna and Child with The Infant Saint John the Baptist

Andrea d'Agnolo called Andrea del Sarto and workshop

(Florence 1486 - 1531)

In the past it was believed that this painting came from the collection of the elder Olimpia Aldobrandini. Critics have attributed it to Andrea d'Agnolo, the Florentine painter better known as Andrea del Sarto. Yet several details, such as the rendering of the boys, betray the hand of a collaborator, perhaps Jacopo Pontormo, who according to Vasari worked for a certain period in Del Sarto’s workshop.

It depicts the Virgin seated in a typically Tuscan landscape together with John the Baptist and the little Jesus, who is portrayed here as he plays with a goldfinch, symbol of Christ’s death and passion. Legend has it that when the bird attempted to remove a thorn from the crown on Christ’s head it was stained with his blood, forever colouring its beak red.

Object details

Commentary

Critics still debate the provenance of this painting. According to Paola della Pergola (1959), it corresponds to the work listed in the 1626 inventory of the elder Olimpia Aldobrandini’s possessions: ‘[...] with a woman holding the cupid on her lap and Saint John to one side, by Andrea del Sarto, at no. 181’. The same painting is mentioned in the 1682 inventory: ‘a work on panel with the Virgin with a Cupid in her lap and Saint John who is passing the cross to him, two spans high [sic], with a frame with arabesques, by Andrea del Sarto [...]’ (Inventories of 1626 and 1682, in Della Pergola 1959).

Although the dimensions given in this entry do not correspond to those of the work in question, Della Pergola claimed that the panel passed from Aldobrandini to the Borghese Collection. The 1693 inventory does in fact include a description that fits our painting: ‘... of 4 spans on panel, the Virgin and Child and Saint John, at number 82, with an engraved frame, by Andrea del Sarto’.

The present writer does not concur with Della Pergola’s theory. The painting described in the Aldobrandini inventory differs from the Borghese panel in both size and subject: contrary to what we see here, the 1682 document describes a work ‘two spans high’ depicting John the Baptist as he hands a cross to Christ.

While doubts remain as to its provenance, certain is the reference to Andrea del Sarto, as most critics have generally accepted this attribution (Berenson 1909; Longhi 1927; Della Pergola 1959). The exceptions here are Giovanni Morelli (1897) and Adolfo Venturi (1925), who ascribed it to the Florentine painter Giuliano Bugiardini. Yet even those who recognise the style of Del Sarto are hesitant in acknowledging the work as solely by the master: noting ‘a strange, faun-like mix of Leonardo, Raphael and Buonarroti’ in this work, Roberto Longhi (1927) pointed to certain features which seem distant from the style of the Florentine painter, such as the rendering of the Virgin and the enthusiasm of the boys. Along these lines, some critics (Longhi 1927; Della Pergola 1959) associate these elements with Del Sarto’s early career, while others (Natali 1989) see them as proof of the collaboration of one of his students, in all likelihood Jacopo Pontormo, who according to Vasari finished his master’s works during his apprenticeship.

Longhi dated the work to roughly 1514, perceiving certain similarities with the fresco Nativity of the Virgin in Santissima Annunziata in Florence. Della Pergola agreed with this date, although it was moved back several years by Antonio Natali (1989), who noted in Mary’s pose an echo of the Virgin in the Dresden altarpiece (Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Gemäldegalerie, inv. no. 76).

Antonio Iommelli

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