Madonna and Child
Madonna and Child
- Artist
- Benedetto Bonfigli
- Artist Dates
- c. 1420-1496
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- Madonna and Child
- Date
- c. 1467
- Medium
- tempera on panel
- Dimensions
- 119 x 51.6 cm (46-3/4 x 20-1/8 in)
- K Number
- K1313
- Repository
- El Paso Museum of Art
- Accession Number
- 1961.1.16
- Notes
Provenance
Guilio Sterbini [d. 1911], Rome. Baron Michele Lazzaroni, Paris, by 1913; by exchange c. 1925 with (Duveen Brothers, New York); [1] sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 13 January 1942; gift to the National Gallery of Art in 1943; deaccessioned in 1959 and returned to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; gift to El Paso Museum of Art, no. 1961.1.16. [1] Berenson notes having seen the Lazzaroni painting in 1913; correspondence between him and Duveen, concerning this painting, begins in late 1924 when it is still in the Lazzaroni collection in Rome. In 1939 it is sent from Duveen's London office to New York, with the comment that Duveen had taken it in exchange "many years ago." Sterbini per this correspondence. See Duveen Brothers Records, Box 226, folder 12 (reel 81), Getty Research Institute. Published as Bonfigli in the Lazzaroni collection by A. Venturi, L'Arte, vol. xxx, 1927, pp. 86.
Catalogue Entry
Benedetto Bonfigli
Madonna and Child
K1313
El Paso, Tex., EI Paso Museum of Art (1961-6/14), since 1961.(1) Wood. 46 3/4 x 20 1/8 in. (119 x 51.6 cm.). Fair condition except for many losses in flesh tones; cleaned 1961. The slender, blond Virgin and round-faced Child are such constant types in Bonfigli's paintings as to confirm his authorship.(2) Formerly entitled Madonna and Child Enthroned,(3) K1313 would be more accurately called a Madonna of Humility, since the Virgin is seated on cushions in a flowering meadow. Similarity to the artist's Madonna triptych of 1467 in the Perugia Pinacoteca suggests a date of about 1470 for K1313. This, also, was once accompanied by side panels to form a triptych. The left panel has been identified, although its present whereabouts is unknown.(4) It has a cusped top like K1313 and represents St. Sebastian and a bishop saint. Provenance: Baron Michele Lazzaroni, Rome (1927). Duveen's, New York. Kress acquisition, 1942 –exhibited: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (713), 1945-56, as Bonfigli.
References
(1) Catalogue by F. R. Shapley, 1961, p. 14, as Bonfigli. (2) No. 1313 has been attributed to Bonfigli by A. Venturi (in L'Arte, vol. XXX, 1927, pp. 86 f.; Studi dal vero, 1927, pp. 105 f.), R. van Marle (Italian Schools of Painting, vol. XIV, 1933, p. 122), B. Berenson, W. E. Suida, W. R. Valentiner, L. Venturi (in ms. opinions), and F. Zeri (in Bollettino d'Arte, vol. XLVI, 1961, pp. 230 f.). (3) Exhibited with this title in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1945-56. (4) F. Zeri, pp. 227, 230 f., fig. 16, of op. cit. in note 2, above.