Virgin and Child and Young Saint John
(Florence 1486 - 1531)
According to Giorgio Vasari’s testimony, this painting was executed by Andrea del Sarto for the cultured and refined Florentine collector Giovanni Gaddi. Depicting the Virgin and Child with the Young John the Baptist, it is the highest testimony of the master’s ability to update his style to the most innovative trends in the maniera artistic language.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Period
Medium
Dimensions
Frame
Seventeenth-century frame with palmette decoration (cm 182 x 129 x 7)
Provenance
Rome, Borghese Collection, 1790 (Inventory 1790, St. VIII, no. I; Della Pergola 1959); Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, p. 11. Purchased by the Italian State, 1902.
Inscriptions
"XX" at the top in the centre of the composition
Exhibitions
- 1935 Parigi, Petit Palais
- 1940 Firenze, Palazzo Strozzi
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 1906 - Luigi Bartolucci (pest control)
- 1936 - Carlo Matteucci
- 1978/79 - Gianluigi Colalucci
Work not currently exhibited
Commentary
This painting, considered by Giorgio Vasari to be ‘the best that Andrea [del Sarto] had then produced’, has been identified with the ‘picture of the Virgin (…) a singularly beautiful painting’ (Shearman 1965; Cecchi 1996), painted by Andrea del Sarto for the Florentine Giovanni Gaddi, as reported by the artist from Arezzo in his famous Lives (Vasari 1550 [1852, p. 355]). This panel, which at an unspecified date entered the Borghese collection, where it is first mentioned in 1790 (Inv. 1790), was soon considered to be a workshop painting (Reumont 1835; Morelli 1890): by some considered to be a copy of a lost original (Guiness 1899; Knapp 1907; Fraenckel 1935) and by others a partially autograph painting (Berenson 1936).
The first to attribute it to the Florentine master without any reservations was Roberto Longhi (1928) who, detecting a relation with the anti-classical movements of Rosso and Pontormo, judged the work ‘a stupendous and profound creation’ (Id.), a judgment that was welcomed by Paola della Pergola (1959) and confirmed by all later critics (see in particular Cecchi 1986; Natali-Cecchi 1989; Herrmann Fiore 2006; Donati 2010).
Variously dated between 1511–1513 (Berenson 1936), 1515–1516 (Reumont 1835; Guiness 1899; Natali 1998) and 1519–1520 (Freedberg 1961; Id. 1963), this composition has been related to both the Madonna of the Harpies by the same artist and to Pontormo’s Pala Pucci, two works rooted in the Michelangelesque climate that spread in Florence during the second decade of the sixteenth century. The panel depicts Mary with Jesus and John the Baptist, the latter identified by the wooden cross behind him. The group, set against a dark wall, is marked in the centre with "XX", emerges thanks to a masterful rendition of light that delicately highlights the plasticity of the bodies and the stark quality of the clothing.
The fortune of this composition, testified by its several variants – including the two versions in Ancona (Pinacoteca Civica) and Rome (Cassa Depositi e Prestiti), as well as its several replicas in private collections (see Della Pergola 1959; Donati 2010) – is certainly due to the artist’s brilliant interpretation of specific Michelangelo models, as evidenced both in the figure of the Infant Jesus, which derives from the study of one of the nudes in the cartoon of the Battle of Cascina, and in that of John the Baptist, whose pose references the frescoed putto above the fireplace in the small cloister of the Annunziata in Florence (Donati 2010).
An extraordinary drawing of this panel is preserved in the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe (Museo degli Uffizi, inv. 304 F) in Florence.
Antonio Iommelli
Bibliography
- F. W. B. von Ramdohr, Ueber Malherei und Bildhauerarbeit in Rom für Liebhaber des Schönen in der Kunst, I, Leipzig 1787, p. 278;
- L. Biadi, Notizie, Firenze 1832, p. 18;
- G. Vasari, Vite de’ più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani, da Cimabue a’ tempi nostri, Firenze 1550, ed. a cura G. Milanesi, VIII, Firenze 1852, p. 261;
- A. Reumont, Andrea del Sarto, Leipzig 1835, p. 234;
- H. Janitshek, Andrea del Sarto, Leipzig 1879, p. 165;
- G. Morelli, Kunstkritische Studien uber Italianische Malerei: die Galerien Borghese und Doria-Pamphili in Rom, Leipzig 1890, p. 87;
- G. Piancastelli, Catalogo dei quadri della Galleria Borghese, in Archivio Galleria Borghese, 1891, p. 237;
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 165;
- H. Ullmann, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, in “Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft”, XVII, 1894, p. 161;
- G. Morelli, Della Pittura Italiana. Studi Storici Critici: Le Gallerie Borghese e Doria Pamphili in Roma, Milano 1897, p. 123;
- H. Guinness, Andrea del Sarto, London 1899, pp. 95, 101;
- H. Vollmer, Andrea del Sarto. Acht farbige Nachbildungen mit biographischer Charakteristik, Leipzig 1899, p. 7;
- J. A. Rusconi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Bergamo 1906, p. 90;
- F. Knapp, Andrea del Sarto, Bielefeld-Leipzig 1907, p. 40;
- D. Di Pietro, I Disegni di Andrea del Sarto negli Uffizi, in “Vita d’Arte”, VI, 1910, p. 41;
- T. Borenius, A catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House Richmond and elsewhere in the collection of sir Frederik Cook: Italian Schools, London 1913, p. 56;
- J. A. Crowe, G. B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy, a cura di B. Borenius, London 1914, p. 342;
- R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane, I, La R. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, pp. 128-130, 208;
- C. Galassi Paluzzi, Indice delle Opere di Pittura esistenti in Roma, in “Roma”, V, 1928, p. 268;
- J. Fraenckel, Andrea del Sarto, Gemälde und Zeichnnungen, Strassburg 1935, pp. 104-105, 167, 188, 238;
- Exposition de l’Art Italien de Cimabue à Tiepolo, catalogo della mostra (Paris, Petit Palais, 1535), a cura di G.M. Huisamn, Paris 1935, I, p. 411; II, p. 119;
- B. Berenson, Pitture Italiane del Rinascimento, Milano 1936, p. 16;
- B. Berenson, The Drawings of the Florentine Painters, Chicago 1938, p. 276;
- A. De Rinaldis, Catalogo della Galleria Borghese, Roma 1948, p. 49;
- P. Della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese in Roma, Milano 1950, p. 28;
- Fontainebleau e la Maniera Italiana, catalogo della mostra (Napoli, Mostra d'Oltremare, 1952), a cura di Centro Italiano Arte Cultura Spettacolo, Firenze 1952, p. 33, n. 55;
- I. Faldi, La Quadreria della Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Roma 1956, pp. 12-13;
- L. Ferrara, Galleria Borghese, Novara 1956, p. 34;
- H. Hubbard, The National Gallery of Canada. Catalogue. I. Older Schools, Ottawa-Toronto 1957, p. 35;
- Meisterwerke aus Baden-Württembergischem Privatbesitz, catalogo della mostra (Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, 1957-1858) I, Stuttgart 1957, p. 74, n. 174;
- P. della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, II, Roma 1959, p. 11, n. 5;
- R. Marchini, La pinacoteca comunale di Ancona, Ancona 1960, p. XXX;
- S.J. Freedberg, Andrea del Sarto, Cambridge 1961, p. 469;
- S.J. Freedberg, Andrea del Sarto, I, Cambridge 1963, p. 68;
- R. Monti, Andrea del Sarto Milano 1965, pp. 151-152;
- J. Shearman, Andrea del Sarto, Oxford 1965, pp. 17, 134;
- I.H. Cheney, Notes on Jacopino del Conte, in “Art Bulletin”, LII, 1970, n. 1, pp. 32-40, p. 32;
- T. Martyn, A tour thought Italy, London 1791, p. 222;
- A. Cecchi, in Profili di amici e committenti, in Andrea del Sarto 1486-1530. Dipinti e disegni a Firenze, catalogo della mostra (Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi), a cura di M. Chiarini, Milano 1986, p. 48;
- A. Natali, A. Cecchi, Andrea Del Sarto: catalogo completo dei dipinti, Firenze 1989, p. 68, n. 28;
- A. Coliva, a cura di, La Galleria Borghese, Roma 1994, p. 77;
- K. Herrmann Fiore, Guida alla Galleria Borghese, Roma 1997, pp. 75-77;
- A. Natali, Andrea del Sarto. Maestro della "Maniera moderna", Milano 1998, p. 78, fig. 68;
- C. Stefani, in P. Moreno, C. Stefani, Galleria Borghese, Milano 2000, p. 341;
- K. Herrmann Fiore, Galleria Borghese Roma scopre un tesoro. Dalla pinacoteca ai depositi un museo che non ha più segreti, San Giuliano Milanese 2006, p. 110;
- A. Donati, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Jacopino del Conte, Daniele Ricciarelli. Ritratto e figura nel manierismo a Roma, Repubblica di San Marino 2010, pp. 118-119.
