A N D R E A  D E L  S A R T O

1486 - Florence - 1530

The Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist

Oil on Panel

87.5 x 68.6 cm

Painted in Florence c. 1513

19th century label on reverse reads '3054 # 6-27-95'

P R O V E N A N C E:

Private Collection, Nantucket;

Private Collection, London

L I T E R A T U R E:  

S. J. Freedberg, Andrea Del Sarto, Cambridge 1963, no. 46, p.93 (as a lost composition);

10. J.Shearman, Andrea Del Sarto, Oxford 1965, no. 24, p.210 (as the missing original for no. 24);
    

R. Verdi, “Master Paintings and Drawings”, The Burlington Magazine, September 2009, p.629

This famous lost masterpiece has only recently come to light. The painting has been the subject of a careful conservation in the second half of 2008. It was discovered that the background had, in the eighteenth or early nineteenth century, been entirely overpainted, in order to make the design correspond more closely with the Leonardo-esque sfumato that was favoured at the time. Now the figures stand out more against the lively brushwork, in characteristic green and grey, and the original shadow of the figures with its vigourous shading, that is also present in the Madonna of the Harpies,  has also been revealed. The colours of the figures have also found their original clarity and depth, the red lacquer of the Madonna’s sleeve being revealed as the same tonality of the red of the dress.

The work was painted a year or two before Del Sarto was commissioned in 1515 to produce one of his most celebrated early masterpieces, The Madonna of the Harpies  now housed in Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. In all probability a private commission, the fame of the painting is demonstrated by the numerous school derivations by Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, Francabigio, Puligo and lesser hands. These existence of these paintings led both the late Professor Sydney Freedberg and Professor John Shearman when they wrote their seminal monographs in the 1960s to suppose that this composition must have come from an original work by Andrea Del Sarto himself. It has now been rediscovered.

The painting is especially interesting as it is one of the first mature examples of Andrea's Holy Family composition, that was to have such a profound impression on Florentine art through the next two centuries. Stylistically it fits just after the Madonna and Child with Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist in the National Gallery and the Kunsthistorisches Tobias. The figures of the Christ Child and St. John begin to exhibit some of the fluency seen later treatments of the same subject, like the c.1518 Borghese Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and the 1520  Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist at Ascot; whilst the hands and the face of the Virgin retain stylistic elements of his slightly early works, like the 1512-13 Uffizi Annunciation. The slightly hooked nose and jagged hand are typical of his early development, whilst the fluent treatment of eyes and hair of the children become more and more developed in later compositions, like the 1520 masterpiece The Lamentation in Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Infrared reflectograms of the charcoal underdrawing on the panel show Andrea del Sarto's characteristically vigorous hand, and the X-rays show "everything I thought they should" as Prof. Shearman writes. The opportunity of this recent cleaning was also taken to make a complete infrared reflectogram, which has made even more evident the sophisticated underdrawing, entirely consistent with other preparations in other autograph Andrea Del Sarto compositions, particularly of these early years. The I-R reflectogram reveals the bold charcoal strokes the artist employed in designing the figures and they are revealed because the infra red rays are particularly sensitive to the carbon element; showing the design almost like a sinopia under a fresco. Numerous pentiments have emerged, of which one of the most interesting is the lightly indicated curtain drawn up to the sides, and extending up towards a baldacchino above the Madonna’s head, a feature which exists in several of the known versions, from the studio like the copy in the Ca D’ Oro, Venice, and the one in the Cremer collection, Dortmund, but not actually incorporated in the original itself. St John’s arm is emphatically restated, and the profile of the Child’s back was evidently set further to the left in an earlier stage of the design. The drawing around the eyes of the Madonna shows the sensitivity of his modeling, an excellent preparation for the brushwork that is subtly different from the original outlines. The treatment of the Madonna’s turban on her shoulder is entirely consistent with the underdrawing in other works of around this date, such as the National Gallery Madonna and Child with Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist and the Hermitage Tallard Madonna (1) , whilst the indication of the Madonna’s unrevealed breast echoes the breast revealed in Charity, Chiostro dello Scalzo, Florence of the same date.

Although the present painting, as Professor Shearman has pointed out, is entirely the master's own hand, the cartoon for this composition was clearly re-used repeatedly by pupils. 'From about 1514, in response it seems to a great pressure on his workshop, he begins to make cartoons for panel-paintings of modest size that can be produced as multiples' (2). The design of the image in the original seems to have been produced with particular care and it is most interesting to have such abundant evidence of the artist's working method, evident in the under-drawing, in what was an exemplary image that so many artists of his entourage took inspiration, from Rosso Riorentino, Franciabigio, Puligo and others. The school derivations of this composition often share the same dimensions and Professor Shearman has argued that there was a cartoon that provided the foundation of this design and it is in this way that the tradition of such Madonnas was perpetuated in Florence.

Shearman noted that it is interesting to see that even in more elaborate works the artist did not always have a cartoon, but this format of the Holy Family was one which he worked to a particular perfection, and it was this that enabled others in the studio to make their own imitations; some with a landscape background and others with a baldacchino and cupids, like the one attributed to Rosso Fiorentino formerly with Colnaghi (3).

Professor Shearman noted the X-rays reveal Del Sarto's distinctive habit of painting the hair on a 'reserved' ground. He sees this as "an authentic Andrea about 1513, of a very interesting and important design".  It represents an important landmark in the artist's production of this kind of subject, for which he was to become so famous.

The previous history of the panel is unknown, although it may have been in the USA as early as the late 19th century. The work is contemporary with the Charity in Chiostro dello Scalzo and a little later than the San Gallo Annunciation, the National Gallery Madonna and Child with Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist and the Hermitage Tallard Madonna, both dated around 1513.

The period around 1513 is also the time when Andrea del Sarto first encountered the love of his life, Lucrezia del Fede, whose features are first recorded in the fresco of the Nativity of the Virgin in the Chiostrino dei voti at Santissima Annunziata, Florence, which is dated that year. She was about four years younger than Andrea himself and had married the berrettaio Carlo di Domenico in 1512, and the romantic involvement with Del Sarto seems to have commenced in 1513. H. Guinness in her biography of 1899 wrote 'It was at this time, whilst Andrea, the kindly and popular artist, beloved by all that knew him, was painting pictures of rare excellence, and beautifying and adorning his native city, that a new and dangerous element entered his life, destined to influence all of his future' (H. Guinness, Andrea del Sarto, London, 1899, p 15). The beginning of the tradition of the Florentine Madonna and Child that he did so much to establish was in this romantic attachment, and Lucrezia continued to inspire him for such celebrated paintings as the Madonna of the Harpies. Vasari, in his first edition of the Lives gives a long account of his entanglement with Lucrezia:

"There was at this time in Via di San Gallo, a beautiful girl who was married to a hatmaker, who was endowed with no less a noble and proud mien, even though she was born to a humble and depraved father, than pleasing and willing to be courted and captivate others, among whom poor Andrea fell victim, who from the torments of to much love abandoned his studies of art, and in large part also the support of his father and mother. Now it happened then that a severe illness overtook her husband, and he never rose from his sickbed but died of it. Nor did Andrea have need of any prompting, for without consulting his friends, with no regard for the virtue of art or the level of artistic endeavor he had reached as a result of so much effort, without telling anyone else, he took this woman Lucrezia di Baccio del Fede, as she was called, for his wife, because it seemed to him that her beauty deserved it, and valuing the needs of his spirit much more than honour and glory, on which path he had already gone so far. When this was known in Florence, it turned the love that he had been borne by his friends to hate, as it seemed that this stain obscured for a while the honour and glory of such a great talent. And not only was this something that troubled the consciousness of some of his servants, but also in a short time also his own peace of mind, for he became jealous; whereupon he met a wise soul who was inclined to repay him a thousand kindnesses and enable him to bear everything: he gave him an account of the amorous travail that he could not keep up with what she wanted. Abandoned altogether by his miserable elders, he took to helping her sisters and father instead. When people came to know this, out of compassion that they felt blamed them, and pointed to Andrea's simple-mindedness in having brought his gentility down to such thoughtless stupidity. For as he had earlier been sought out by his friends, now he was shunned And although his assistants learnt something by being with him, there was not a single one of them young or old, who was not subject to verbal or physical abuse from her; and yet, despite that he was living in the midst of this torment, it seemed to him the greatest pleasure". (4)

In the 1568 edition Vasari toned down this acerbic criticism of the wife whose features  dominated Andrea del Sarto's imagery in his whole career. It seems that Baccio del Fede was a well-to-do merchant and gave them a handsome dowry, including a house in Via San Gallo. Lucrezia's first husband died in 1516, so the scandal was maybe attached to the attachment that occurred before that event; they were married probably in 1517. It was soon after their marriage that the painter received the prestigious summons to come and work in France at Fontainebleau for Francis I, a journey that seems to have been made in 1518/19; on his return he travelled to Rome, and his fame spread throughout Italy.

(1) L. Keith, “Andrea del Sarto’s The Virgin and Child with Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist: Technique and Critical Reputation”, National Gallery Technical Bulletin, Vol. 22, 2001, p.42-53

(2) J. Shearman, 'A Lost Altarpiece by Andrea Del Sarto, the Madonna of S. Ambrogio' Festschrift fur Konrad Oberhuber, Electa, Milan, 2000, p. 128

(3) Discoveries of the Cinquecento, exh. cat., Colnaghi, London, 1982, no.31

(4) G. Vasari, Vite, ed. Milanesi, 1906, Vol. V, p. 19