Madonna and Child
This work was first documented in connection with the Borghese Collection in 1833. Critics have variously attributed it to the school of Raphael, to Primaticcio, to Sodoma and finally to a follower of Leonardo da Vinci. Nonetheless, several features that recall the style of Francesco Francia rather suggest that the work should be located in the school of Emilia. The panel was most likely executed in the mid-16th century. Against a background with a landscape, the painting depicts the little Jesus seated on a wall while he ruefully observes a small cross. Next to him, Mary gestures with her right as if to indicate that she partakes of the pain of her son’s destiny.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Period
Medium
Dimensions
Frame
Salvator Rosa, 77 x 57 x 6 cm
Provenance
Rome, Borghese Collection, 1833 (Inventario Fidecommissario 1833, p. 22; Della Pergola 1959); purchased by Italian state, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 1903 - Luigi Bartolucci;
- 1978-79 - Gianluigi Colalucci.
Commentary
The provenance of this work is still unknown. It is first mentioned in the 1833 Inventario Fidecommissario as forming part of the collection of paintings at the Casino di Porta Pinciana. Here it is described as a ‘Virgin and Child, school of Raphael’. While Giovanni Piancastelli (1891) accepted this attribution, Adolfo Venturi (1893) called it into question, noting several similarities with the style of Francesco Francia. Proposing that the panel was by the hand ‘of one of this master’s last followers’, Venturi attributed it to Primaticcio, an opinion forcefully rejected by Giulio Cantalamessa (1912).
In 1928 Roberto Longhi suggested that the painting betrayed ‘small hints of Sodoma’s influence’ and situated it in the Sienese school (Longhi 1928). His theory, though, did not persuade Paola della Pergola (1959), who claimed that it was the work of a Roman painter of the first half of the 16th century who was familiar with the painting of Emilia. For her part, Kristina Herrmann Fiore (2006) published the panel as by an ‘unknown follower of Leonardo’.
From this plurality of attributions we can conclude that the artist in question was one who was attuned to the various influences of the era. It is most likely the product of an itinerant painter who moved between the main Italian courts and was able to learn from the great masters; the artist in question was probably connected to the school of Francesco Francia.
Antonio Iommelli
Bibliography
- G. Piancastelli, Catalogo dei quadri della Galleria Borghese, in Archivio Galleria Borghese, 1891, p. 300;
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 110;
- G. Cantalamessa, Note manoscritte al Catalogo di A. Venturi del 1893, Arch. Gall. Borghese, 1911-1912, p. 168;
- R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane, I, La R. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, p. 194;
- P. della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, II, Roma 1959, pp. 104-105;
- 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. 58.
