(active in Florence circa 1500–1515)
The Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist,
oil on panel, diam. 86 cm, framed

Provenance:
art market, France;
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to Louis Waldman for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph.

The Master of the Scandicci Lamentation’s oeuvre was first clarified by Everett Fahy in his 1968 doctoral dissertation (E. Fahy, Some followers of Domenico Ghirlandaio, Ph. D. Dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge (MA) 1968) and discussed in further detail in Some followers of Domenico Ghirlandaio (New York 1976), where Fahy presented some fifteen works by this anonymous master. He advanced the understanding of this unidentified artist, confirming that he was active in Florence during the first decades of the sixteenth century and worked in a style close to the early manner of Francesco Granacci and Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio (both also active during the first half of the sixteenth century). This observation further dovetailed with a series of studies that had already observed a nucleus of similar, stylistically coherent works, which until then had not been assigned to a clear artistic identity.

The painter’s moniker derives from the principal reference work of this artist’s production, a panel representing the Lamentation of Christ that was executed for the church of San Bartolomeo in Tuto in Scandicci, near Florence. The panel compositionally derives from Pierto Perugino’s Lamentation for the Poor Clares of the convent of Santa Chiara, Florence (today conserved in the Galleria Palatina di Palazzo Pitti). Consequently, Fahy believed the Master of the Scandicci Lamentation should be more precisely identified as a follower of Perugino, who during the first decade of the sixteenth century re-orientated his work towards Domenico Ghirlandaio. In addition to these influences, the Florentine master was also sensitive to the other artists from the first decades of the sixteenth century who left a substantial influence on Florentine painting, including Raphael, Michelangelo and the young Andrea del Sarto.

The present tondo demonstrates the Florentine artistic culture at the outset of the sixteenth century and can be compared to other tondi by the artist, such as the Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist in the Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum, Linz, and a tondo of the same subject in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, as well as the Madonna and Child in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (which is of quadrangular format). These works all present the same decisively described figure types with carefully rendered anatomies, the same delicately sinuous folds in the figure’s robes and a similar landscape.

It could be argued that the round format of so many of his works constitutes a form of a hallmark of the Master of the Scandicci Lamentation; this is a form that was firmly connected with late Quattrocento painting and was informed by the new rapport between figure and space, which was introduced to Florentine painting by Michelangelo with his celebrated Pitti Tondo and Doni Tondo.

A second smaller version of this work (oil on panel, diam. 83.8 cm) with a simplified composition has been on the art market. In the present painting, the Master decorated the cover of the book held by the Madonna with a gold border, he depicted a tree in the landscape behind Saint John and he touched the bushes growing by the river with delicate highlights. In the second smaller version, meanwhile, he gave the book a green cover but no gilt border, he omitted the tree behind Saint John and demonstrated less care over the highlighting – these are all features that point to it being probably modelled on a prototype which may be identified with the present painting. The present composition was therefore evidently sufficiently successful for it to be replicated at least once. Such a circumstance is not unique in the Master’s oeuvre, who apparently repeated parts of his compositions in other works. Another example is the Hermitage panel, which reveals important points of similarity with the Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist in the Museo di Casa Martelli, Florence, and with another painting also in the Hermitage in which the artist has omitted the infant Saint John while the figures of the Madonna and Child are identical.

Technical analysis:

This work shows the typical painting practice used by Florentine artists in the early 16th century, with a simple, precise underdrawing delineating the figures, and the ability to create the sfumato on the bodies using an oil mixture of lead white, vermillion and ochre, together with black particles in darker shadows.

IR reflectographic images indicate the use of a thin brush for the drawing, but also the use of a sharp dry medium like black chalk or charcoal to trace the first outlines, that are visible under high magnification.

Pigments include azurite that was widely used in the sky, in the blue areas of the landscape and in the Madonna’s cloak and sleeve. The sleeve is lit with lead-tin yellow to obtain the peculiar change of colour. Verdigris can be detected in the green zones and a red lake is used in the Madonna’s dress.

We are grateful to Gianluca Poldi for the technical examination of the present painting.