Madonna and Child with Columbines
Madonna and Child with Columbines
- Artist
- Follower of Leonardo da Vinci
- Artist Dates
- 1452-1519
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- Madonna and Child with Columbines
- Date
- about 1490
- Medium
- oil on panel
- Dimensions
- 50.1 x 38.5 cm (19-3/4 x 15-1/8 in)
- K Number
- K430
- Repository
- Denver Art Museum
- Accession Number
- 1961.166
- Notes
Provenance
Private Collection, England. (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955] Rome-Florence); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 1 January 1936 as Ambrogio de Predis; gift to the National Gallery of Art in 1939; deaccessioned in 1952 and returned to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; gift to the Denver Art Museum, no. 1961.166.
Catalogue Entry
Follower of Leonardo da Vinci
Madonna and Child with Columbines
K430
Denver, Colo., Denver Art Museum (E-IT-18-XV-937), since 1954.(1) Wood. 19 3/4 X 15 1/8 in. (50.2 X 38.4 cm.). Abraded in flesh tones; bottom corners added and picture restored c. 1935. A close relationship of K430 to Leonardo's style was noted by critics thirty years ago, when the painting entered the Kress Collection.(2) An old photograph, made in London before the picture was studied by these critics,(3) proves that it was originally of even finer quality than they could guess. It was at that time an oval, cut down presumably from a rectangular shape. The retouching which brought the painting to its present state, weakened the modeling of the forms and produced a more superficial expression, while additions at the bottom gave the composition a straight lower edge.(4) A particularly ugly detail in the restoration was the obliteration of the third finger on the Virgin's right hand and the distortion of the index finger,(5) perhaps as a conscious effort to imitate hands in certain paintings by Ambrogio de Predis, to whom there was a tendency to attribute K430. Whether or not Leonardo had a part in the execution of the painting, as has been suggested,(6) the work may well have been done in his studio soon after his return to Milan in 1506. Provenance: Possibly English Private Collection.(7) Contini Bonacossi, Florence. Kress acquisition, 1936 – exhibited: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (349),1941-52.(8)
References
(1) Catalogue by W. E. Suida, 1954, p. 32, as studio of Leonardo. (2) K430 was at this time attributed (in ms. opinions) by G. Fiocco, R. Longhi, and A. Venturi to Ambrogio de Predis, based on a design or the immediate inspiration of Leonardo; by F. M. Perkins to a close pupil of Leonardo after a design by the latter; by B. Berenson tentatively to Francesco Napoletano. R. van Marle (in a telegram) suggested it was very probably a nearly Leonardo. (3) Photograph by A. C. Cooper, London, in Richter Archives, National Gallery of Art. It is probably this photograph which is reproduced by E. Camesasca (Artisti in bottega, 1966, pl. XXXIVa-c), who reproduces the picture also after restoration, which he indicates was carried out by Pellicioli of Bergamo. (4) Suida (loc. cit. in note 1, above) says the comers were added by M. Pellicioli. (5) An X-ray photograph of K430 shows up original details and also the generally fine state of the painting before its restoration. (6) By Suida (in ms. opinion of 1936) and van Marle (see note 2, above). (7) This suggestion is based on the fact that the painting was once photographed in London (see note 3, above). (8) Preliminary Catalogue, 1941, pp. 161 f, as Ambrogio de Predis.