(Florence 1492–1527)
Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John,
oil on panel, 92 x 72 cm, framed

Provenance:
Miss Bridgeman Simpson, Pilton Hall, England;
her sale, Christie’s, London, 20 July 1984, lot 188 (as attributed to Domenico Puligo);
with Galleria Armondi, in 1992;
Private collection, Italy;
sale, Lempertz, Cologne, 18 November 2017, lot 2014 (as Domenico Puligo);
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
E. Capretti, S. Padovani, Domenico Puligo (1492–1527). Un protagonista dimenticato della pittura fiorentina, exhibition catalogue, Livorno 2002, p. 44, no. 6 (as Domenico Puligo)

The present painting can be compared to other works by Puligo, including one in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hertford, Connecticut (inv. no. 1991.2) or the Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and Saint Lawrence in the Galleria Palatina, Florence (inv. 1912 no. 146).

According to Giorgio Vasari, Domenico degli Ubaldini, called ‘il Puligo’ trained in the studio of Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, and remained there ‘for many years’. From this master the young artist ‘learnt the finest colouring, and continued in this dazzling manner, eliding the outlines with the shades of his colours, which he liked so as to give his figures a graceful air’ [‘apprese il colorito vaghissimo, e quello continuò con maniera abbagliata, con perdere i contorni ne gli scuri de’ suoi colori, che piacendogli dare alle sue figure una aria gentile’] (see G. Vasari, Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori…, Florence 1568, ed. by G. Milanesi, Florence 1879, vol. IV, pp. 461-468). The Child’s features in the present painting are similar to those of the infant in the panel of 1516-1517 by Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio representing Saint Zenobius resuscitating an infant (Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence).

Puligo was also influenced by Andrea del Sarto with whom he was ‘great friends’ [‘amicissimo’] and he collaborated with him on works, including The Madonna with the Infant Saint John the Baptist in the Galleria Borghese, Rome. Vasari states that Puligo’s work is characterised by a ‘certa nebbia’ [‘certain mistiness’], that softens the surfaces and dissolves the outlines in pleasing effects of light and shade, generating a more sweetly sentimental atmosphere. In addition to concentrating on ‘quadri di Nostre Donne, ritratti et altre teste’ [‘paintings of Our Lady, portraits and other heads’].

Puligo received commisisons from the Cistercian Order and he painted a Madonna and Child enthroned with Saints Quinto and Placido for the Badia di San Salvatore at Settimo near Florence, now in the John and Mable Ringling Museum, Sarasota, while for the Florentine church of Santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi, originally known as Cestello, he created one of his most important works in 1526–1527: the altarpiece for the chapel of Paolo di Romena, a sacra conversazione with the Madonna and Child surrounded by six Saints wherein the Madonna’s pose recalls that in Andrea del Sarto’s Madonna delle Arpie.