Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John
Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John
- Artist
- Follower of Agnolo Bronzino
- Artist Dates
- 1503-1572
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John
- Date
- 1540/60
- Medium
- oil on poplarwood panel
- Dimensions
- 102.2 x 79.7 cm (40-1/4 x 31-3/8 in)
- K Number
- K1730
- Repository
- Portland Art Museum
- Accession Number
- 61.48
- Notes
Provenance
(Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955] Rome- Florence); sold to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation on 17 July 1950; gift to Portland Art Museum in 1961, no. 61.48.
Catalogue Entry
Follower of Agnolo Bronzino
Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John
K1730
Portland, Ore., Portland Art Museum (61.48), since 1961. Wood. 40 1/4 x 31 3/8 in. (102.2 x 79.7 cm.). Very good condition; minor restorations; cleaned 1950. Brought to attention only a few years ago, K1730 is an example of a composition which is known in a number of versions. One of these (in Castle Pavlovsk, near Leningrad, as early as 1848 and still there in 1971), which in reproduction seems remarkably close to K1730, is attributed to Bronzino himself. (1) K1730 also has won some acceptance as by Bronzino, with a date between about 1540 and 1560.(2) That the execution is, instead, by a close follower is suggested by what seems to be an overemphasis upon Bronzino's mannerism.(3) Provenance: Contini Bonacossi, Florence. Kress acquisition, 1950 –exhibited: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1951-60;(4) 'Bacchiacca and His Friends,' Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Md., Jan.10-Feb. 19, 1961, no. 44, as Bronzino.
References
(1) V. Lasareff, in Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft, vol. I, 1923, pp. 249 ff., pl. 106. The Pavlovsk Castle painting is included in Bronzino's oeuvre, with a date of about 1540/45 by A. McComb, Agnolo Bronzino, 1928, p. 69, following Lasareff. It had been published in 1894 (by F. Steinchen, Raphaels Madonna di Siena, reproduced p. 35) as a copy by 'Alessandro Allori, called Bronzino,' after a painting of similar composition unconvincingly attributed to Raphael. Miss Irene Linnik, of the Hermitage Museum, has kindly informed us (in an undated letter written in answer to one of Feb. 12, 1971, from Anna Voris) that the picture is still in Pavlovsk Castle, where it is catalogued as Bronzino. (2) K1730 is attributed to Bronzino by R. Longhi (in ms. opinion, dating it c. 1540), W. E. Suida (see note 4, below; Suida dates it c. 1540), A. Emiliani (Il Bronzino, 1960, pl. 89, dating it 1550/60), and J. Shearman (in Burlington Magazine, vol. CV, 1963, p. 416, suggesting that Emiliani's dating is too late). It is included as Bronzino in the 1963 edition of B. Berenson's Italian Pictures ... Florentine School, vol. I, p. 44, although Berenson (verbally) had earlier expressed doubt regarding it. It is referred to as Bronzino by M. Levey (in Studies ... Presented to Anthony Blunt, 1967, p. 30). (3) C. H. Smyth (in letter of Oct. 25, 1957, basing his opinion on photographs) thinks K1730 is probably a competent copy of the version in Russia; S. J. Freedberg (in letter of March 5, 1971) attributes it to an unidentified follower of Bronzino. (4) Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection, 1951, p. 132 (catalogue by W. E. Suida), as Bronzino.