Madonna and Child

This fine, newly discovered canvas is a rare work by Antonio Solario. Known by his posthumously acquired nickname ‘lo Zingaro’ (‘the Gypsy’), the facts surrounding his life and remarkably itinerant career are still rather mysterious. He was probably born in Venice, as suggested by the signature discovered in 1828 on the Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist in the National Gallery in London that reads ‘Antonius de Solario / Venetus’ (fig. 1). Certainly the influence of Venetian masters, such as Giovanni Bellini, is strongly felt in many of his works, and he is also known to have spent time in Le Marche and Naples, where he made his most renowned work, the great cycle showing Stories of the Life of Saint Benedict for the church of Santi Severino e Sossio.

Solario’s fascinating personal connections with England are confirmed by the Withypoll Triptych, dated 1514. The central section shows the Holy Family with an angel and the patron Paul Withypoll (Bristol, Museum and Art Gallery), with the wings depicting Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Ursula (London, National Gallery, on deposit at the Bristol museum). Paul Withypoll (c. 1485-1547) was a cloth merchant from Bristol who traded with Italy, Spain and Portugal, and was later elected to the House of Commons. It is possible that Solario may have even made the commission on a visit to England, as further intriguing mention of his work in the country was made by the poet and antiquarian John Leland, who rose to a position of great prominence as Keeper of Henry VIII’s libraries. He made reference to two works by Solario in English collections, including one portrait of Thomas Knyvett, who died in 1512.

The National Gallery Virgin, as well as the Withypool Triptych, show landscapes seen beyond windows in similar fashion to the present picture, while the standing pose of the Child here is also highly comparable to the London panel. This canvas was identified as a work by Solario by Andrea de Marchi, who noted, in the positioning of the Madonna's left hand on the book, an homage paid by the artist to Antonello da Messina's renowned San Cassiano Altarpiece. Very few of his works have ever come to auction; other examples of his relatively small corpus are in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan and Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome.