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Lot Essay
This is a copy by Vasari after the Medici Madonna in the Galleria Palatina, Florence, one of Andrea del Sarto's most famous late paintings, executed around 1529 for Ottaviano de' Medici (J. Shearman, Andrea del Sarto, Oxford, 1965, no. 93). Vasari had close ties to both the painter and the patron of the Medici Madonna. While Andrea del Sarto was one of his first teachers, when he transferred to Florence from Arezzo in the early 1523-4, Ottaviano de' Medici was one of his most important early patrons. In his 'life' of Andrea, Vasari gives a detailed description of the painting and the circumstances of its commission. According to Vasari's Vite, published after Ottaviano's death in 1546, the Medici Madonna remained with his widow. By 1589 the picture is already recorded in an inventory of the collection of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany.
Vasari executed numerous paintings for Ottaviano in the 1530s and the 1540s. According to his Ricordanze, a record of his own commissions, in 1541 the artist made a copy (approximately 144 x 116 cm.) for Ottaviano, to replace a Madonna and Child which Andrea had painted for him and which Duke Cosimo I had taken away from him (K. and H.- W. Frey, Giorgio Vasari. Der literarische Nachlass, Munich, 1930, II, no. 108). Unfortunately, Vasari does not give a precise description of that painting, which, together with his remark in the Vite that the Medici Madonna was still with Ottaviano's widow in 1568, would suggest that the present picture might be Vasari's copy of 1541. Vasari, however, mentions two further copies after Andrea del Sarto, both listed under the year 1558 in his Ricordanze (ibid., nos. 247, 254). He made the first of these for his own house ('Ricordo come per casa si fecie ... et un altro maggiore da Andrea del Sarto'), the other for a certain Leonardo Marinozzi ('si ritrasse uno quadro d'Andrea').
Stylistically, the painting seems to date from not too late in the artist's career. It is comparable, for instance, with the Holy Family with Saint Francis in the Los Angeles, County Museum of Art of 1541, or his Holy Families in Munich, Vienna amd Bradford, all datable to the 1540s or slightly later (L. Corti, Vasari. Catalogo Completo, Florence, 1989, pp. 34, 50, 58).
We are grateful to Dr. Florian Haerb for confirming the attribution.
Vasari executed numerous paintings for Ottaviano in the 1530s and the 1540s. According to his Ricordanze, a record of his own commissions, in 1541 the artist made a copy (approximately 144 x 116 cm.) for Ottaviano, to replace a Madonna and Child which Andrea had painted for him and which Duke Cosimo I had taken away from him (K. and H.- W. Frey, Giorgio Vasari. Der literarische Nachlass, Munich, 1930, II, no. 108). Unfortunately, Vasari does not give a precise description of that painting, which, together with his remark in the Vite that the Medici Madonna was still with Ottaviano's widow in 1568, would suggest that the present picture might be Vasari's copy of 1541. Vasari, however, mentions two further copies after Andrea del Sarto, both listed under the year 1558 in his Ricordanze (ibid., nos. 247, 254). He made the first of these for his own house ('Ricordo come per casa si fecie ... et un altro maggiore da Andrea del Sarto'), the other for a certain Leonardo Marinozzi ('si ritrasse uno quadro d'Andrea').
Stylistically, the painting seems to date from not too late in the artist's career. It is comparable, for instance, with the Holy Family with Saint Francis in the Los Angeles, County Museum of Art of 1541, or his Holy Families in Munich, Vienna amd Bradford, all datable to the 1540s or slightly later (L. Corti, Vasari. Catalogo Completo, Florence, 1989, pp. 34, 50, 58).
We are grateful to Dr. Florian Haerb for confirming the attribution.