VARIOUS PROPERTIES

Studio of Giovanni Battista da Conegliano, called Cima da Conegliano (1459-c. 1517/8)

The Madonna and Child

Details

Studio of Giovanni Battista da Conegliano, called Cima da Conegliano (1459-c. 1517/8)
The Madonna and Child
oil on canvas
31½ x 26¼in. (80 x 66.7cm.)

Provenance

Nicolas Brady, Manhasset, New York.
with Duveen Brothers, New York, 1946.
with Acquavella Galleries, New York.
Dr. Bruno Pagliai, Mexico.

Literature

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Venetian School, 1957, I, p. 66 as Cima da Conegliano.
L. Coletti, Cima da Conegliano, 1959, p. 71, no. 4b as Cima da Conegliano.
P. Humfrey, Cima da Conegliano, 1983, p. 118, no. 78, pl. 4a.

Exhibited

New York, Duveen Brothers, Exhibition of Old Masters, Jan.-March, 1946, no. 15.

Lot Essay

The present lot is one of several studio versions of this composition (P. Humfrey, op. cit., nos. 168-75, pp. 168-70, pls. 3a-5d) the primary example of which is the Madonna and Child in the John G. Johnson collection, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Inv. no. 176, dated by Humfrey to circa 1485/6 (ibid. pp. 140-1, no. 122, pl. 2).

Once thought by both Berenson and Coletti to be an autograph work (op. cit.), the present work was recognized by Humfrey as one of the best of the workshop variants, noting that Cima's studio practices are still relatively unknown, therefore making it difficult to assess how much, if anything, the master contributed to the paintings produced by his workshop (private correspondence, 1996). In this work the figures in the background are borrowed from Cima's Baptism of Christ in the Mynna Ferraro collection, Venice, dated to circa 1492-4 (ibid., no. 154, pl. 36), thus suggesting a date for the present painting of circa 1495.