Madonna with Child in a Rose Garden

Raibolini Francesco called Francesco Francia

Bologna c. 1450. - 1517)

Francia painted the panel for Dorotea Fantuzzi, who entered the Dominican convent of S. Maria Maddalena in Bologna in 1518 and died in 1589. Fantuzzi’s entry into the convent is useful for dating the painting, which was listed as part of the Borghese collection only in 1833. The work is typical of the artist’s production – consisting of compositions that are gentle and balanced, but with scant emotional power – on which his assistants must have done much of the work.

Object details

Commentary

Information about the painting's provenance and commission is given on the back of the panel. As for the provenance, it came from the Convent of S. Maria Maddalena in Bologna. The commission, on the other hand, is associated with the figure of Dorotea Fantuzzi, dedicatee of the work, who entered the Dominican convent in 1518. It would appear to have arrived in Rome from Bologna at an unspecified date, but certainly before 1678, when Malvasia recalled how “restricting myself to those only of Rome, it being impossible to describe them all, the one that is in the chambers of the Villa Borghese, held there commonly to be by Pietro Perugino” (Malvasia 1678).  An ascription that would be corrected in the Fideicommissary lists (...), where it is recorded as a work by Francia. Venturi and Longhi concurred as to this attribution, while the name of Francia’s pupil Jacopo Boateri, had been put forward by Ricci, at the suggestion of Piancastelli. Lermolieff [Morelli] (Morelli, 1889 (1897), pp. 194-195) also considered the work to be by a pupil or imitator.

In the collection catalogue, Paola della Pergola states that the painting is definitely by the artist (Della Pergola 1955, p. 37). She also mentions a version that is very similar, except for the addition of two angels on one of the sides, held in Rohoncz Castle in Hungary. Emilio Negro believed that his workshop contributed to the painting, stating, however, that “it is not improbable that he intervened in part of the execution, as seems to be revealed by the delicate fineness of the Virgin's face, although the robustness of the figures rather recalls the manner of his sons” (Negro 1998, pp. 249-250). According to Negro’s study on the artist, only the compositional layout, which was to be adopted by his sons in the painting in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna (inv. no. 568), is to be ascribed to the artist. This would tend to suggest a late dating of the work, around 1515, when the contribution of his sons Giacomo and Giulio was greater. Certainly, we have here the successful compositional layout to be found in other versions attributed to Francia's workshop, probably deriving from a model provided by the master, to be later reworked. Francesco's involvement seems substantial, although the wideness of the forms is probably to be attributed to the intervention of one of his sons or his workshop. The master's predilection for slender, threadlike figures around this date is one of the features that most strongly suggest that this voluminous composition should be dated to the second decade of the 16th century.  

Fabrizio Carinci