Girolamo del Pacchia (Siena 1477-after 1533)

The Madonna and Child

Details

Girolamo del Pacchia (Siena 1477-after 1533)
The Madonna and Child
oil on panel
20 x 15.7/8 in. (50.8 x 43 cm.)

Provenance

Wesendonk (on loan to the Provincial Museum, Bonn, no. 206a).
Westdeutscher Museumsbesitz, Sammlung Wesendonk-von Bissin; sale, Lempertz, Cologne, 27 November 1935, lot 77.

Literature

F. Harck, in Archivio Storia dell'Arte, II, 1889, as 'not by Sodoma'.
B. Berenson, The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance, London, 1897, p. 158.
W. Cohen, Provinzial-Museum in Bonn. Gemldegalerie Katalog, Bonn, 1927, p. 102, no. 206a.
C. Brandi, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Knstler, Leipzig, 1932, XXVI, p. 114.
A. Venturi, Storia dell'Arte Italiana, I. IX, part V, p. 354.
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools, London, 1968, p. 306.

Lot Essay

Pacchia's style clearly reflects his Sienese origins as well as the study of Perugino and Pinturicchio, who was in Siena from 1503 to 1508. Like the majority of Sienese artists working in Siena during the first half of the sixteenth century he was influenced by the innovative style of Beccafumi. However, later in his career his style became more eccentric. This is partly due to the acquaintance with Sodoma in 1518. That year the two artists and Beccafumi competed for the commission to decorate the Oratory of S. Bernardino, Siena. This picture shows the influence of Sodoma and is therefore likely to post-date the competition. It can be compared to a pair of Allegorical figures of circa 1520 (catalogue of the exhibition, Domenico Beccafumi e il suo tempo, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena, 16 June - 4 November 1990, p. 288, no. 57).

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