Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist

Manner of Tosini Michele called Michele di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio

(Florence 1503 - 1577)

Initially ascribed to Raphael, and then to Marcello Venusti, the work is to be considered but a pale reflection of the sacred art produced by Michele di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio. This was always based on simplified traditional models, easily understood by the faithful, and it adhered to the harmonious, balanced classicist canons of the beginning of the century.

Object details

Commentary

Mary holds the infant Jesus in her arms as she and her son receive a scroll from a kneeling John the Baptist, who can be recognised by the processional cross. On the scroll are the partially visible words spoken at the Baptism of Christ (John 1:29): Ecce Agnus Dei (Behold the Lamb of God). The scene takes place near an ancient building, as can be seen from the smooth column on the right. A townscape in the background features a reddish entrance tower with a bridge and a door. Above the door is a painting, and a little further to the left, a white church.

As Paola Della Pergola (1959) noted, the work in question can be identified for the first time as the “painting of around three palms, on panel, with the Madonna and Child holding the Cross in her hand, with the gilded, carved, smooth frame, inventory no. 47, by Raphael”, which was then attributed in the 1833 fideicommissary inventory to Marcello Venusti. It was Giovan Battista Cavalcaselle in his monumental monograph on Raphael, edited together with Crowe (1891), who first suggested the name of Michele di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio as being the painter of this panel. Rusconi (1906) and Longhi (1928) agreed with this attribution, while Della Pergola correctly played down the attribution in favour of a more generic, yet apter, “manner of Tosini”. Bernard Berenson was in complete disagreement with the other critics. At first, he credited Giuliano Bugiardini (1904) with the painting, then suggested Girolamo del Pacchia (1909), and finally came out in favour of Girolamo Genga (1936).

Put on display in 1939 in the entrance hall on the present floor of the Pinacoteca (De Rinaldis 1939), it is certainly a very interesting composition by a Tuscan artist who was much influenced by the work of Michele di Ridolfo, but who, in the depiction of faces, was more inspired by Leonardo. It is interesting to note the similarity of the round shape of the Virgin’s face to that of the so-called Benois Madonna in the Hermitage (inv. ГЭ-2773) or with the Madonna of the Carnation in the Alte Pinakothek gallery, Munich (cat. 7779). Moreover, the landscape has echoes of the work by the above-mentioned Pacchia of the Siena School, especially when compared with the tondo depicting a Madonna and Child in the Museo del Cenacolo di Andrea del Sarto in Florence (cat. 1890, 3441) and the Abduction of the Sabines in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles (cat. 72.PB.9).

Lara Scanu