The Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist

Both S.J. Freedberg (see Andrea del Sarto, II, 1963, pp. 93-4, no. 46) and John Shearman (Andrea del Sarto, II, 1965, p. 210, no. 24) posited a lost original for this composition, the former suggesting a date of about 1512, the latter circa 1520, although Freedberg has subsequently (in private) revised his dating to concur with Shearman's. The design is known in numerous variants and copies, some featuring a neutral background as in the present picture, some with a baldacchino, others with a landscape. While Freedberg theorized that the motive of the baldacchino (copies formerly in the Cremer Collection, Dortmund, the Cá d'Oro, Venice, Livorno and the Methuen Collection, Corsham Court) was Andrea's invention, Shearman believed that the design originally existed in two forms. Professor Shearman has now examined the present work and regards it as partly by the hand of Andrea del Sarto with studio participation, as in all mature works by the artist. On the other hand, Professor Freedberg regards the painting as a replica of notable quality, of the period and possibly by Andrea's studio. Infra-red reflectography reveals underdrawing that is remarkably consistent with del Sarto's working method and is blocked out in bold, summary drawing, some parts of which are clearly visible even with the naked eye. Shearman (op. cit.) characterized the missing original as 'an important work, showing the increasing emotional excitement and direct appeal to the beholder compared with the earliest Madonnas and in this respect looking forward to the [lost] Porta Pinti Madonna (his no. 59; Freedberg no. 47). It appears to have exercised a powerful influence upon Pontormo, and may have been painted during a period when the latter was an assistant in Sarto's shop. It is certainly a composition, the importance of which has been overlooked in studies of this period'.