Madonna and Child with The Infant Saint John the Baptist

Grazia Leonardo called Leonardo da Pistoia

(Pistoia 1503 - Naples post 1548)

Given the general nature of the subject – a Madonna and Child with the Infant John – it is difficult to identify this painting in the historic Borghese inventories. While some critics have suggested an attribution to Leonardo Grazia of Pistoia, others have proposed the circle of Perin del Vaga, whose decorative style is certainly evident in several details, such as the winged sphinx under Jesus’s foot.

Object details

Commentary

The provenance of this painting is still unknown. It was in fact not mentioned in connection with the Borghese Collection until 1833, when the Inventario Fidecommissario of that year listed it as a ‘Holy Family, school of Raphael’. As Paola della Pergola (1959) suggested, it is nonetheless possible that the panel had already been in the family collection for some time, although the general nature of inventory descriptions and the common subject of the work in question make certain identification problematic. 

While Adolfo Venturi (1893) ascribed the work to the young Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta, Roberto Longhi (1928) attributed it to a follower of Giulio Romano. For her part, Della Pergola (1959) rejected both theories, suggesting rather the ‘circle Perin del Vaga’, given the nobility and softness of several of the panel’s traits. Ferdinando Bologna (1959) was the first critic to propose an attribution to Leonardo Grazia of Pistoia. His hypothesis was accepted by subsequent critics (Rotili 1972; Savarese 1980; Leone de Castris 1988 and 1996; Herrmann Fiore 2006; for a different opinion, see Corso 2018), with the exception of Anna Bisceglia (1996), who saw the hand of Perin del Vaga in the compositional arrangement and the formal elegance of certain features.

Scholars initially dated the work to the 1540s, given its similarities to the Presentation at the Temple in the church of Monteoliveto (Museo di Capodimonte, Naples; see Bologna 1959); today, however, it is believed to have been executed between the 1520s and 30s (see Leone de Castris 1988; Id. 2019), the period in which Leonardo Grazia blended the manner of Raphael with the purism of the designs of a Siciolante da Sermoneta, while openly imitating the models of the former.

A lost replica of this painting with the addition of the figure of Joseph appears in Federico Zeri’s photo library (photo profile no. 37702; see Corso 2018).

Antonio Iommelli