.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This is one of a small group of versions of the composition including other examples in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, the Palazzo Bianco, Genoa, and one belonging to the Aurora Trust, New York. The present panel has for most of its history been held to be at least largely autograph by commentators, including Hans Van Miegroet in his 1989 monograph on the artist, until Maryan Ainsworth included it in the catalogue of the Metropolitan Museum exhibition in 1998, as a workshop version. That most recent qualification is, perhaps conservatively, followed in the present cataloguing.
The composition was first identified as the work of David by Crowe and Cavalscavelle (Geschichte der altniederländische Malerei, Leipzig, 1875, p. 312). Since then there has been considerable debate over the identification of the earliest version, with the majority of authors regarding the Aurora Trust version (formerly Pannwitz collection) as having primacy, although this has been disputed by authors including Van Miegroet, who argued that the discovery of dotted underdrawing in all the Brussels, Aurora Trust and Genoa pictures suggests the existence of an earlier, either lost or unrecognised, prototype. Most recently, Dr. Ainsworth proposed again that the Aurora Trust picture is the earliest version.
The composition itself is one of David's own devising and reflects the increasing interest in secular themes in art in the early sixteenth century, as well as the growing popularity of, and consciousness of, Italian - and in particular Leonardesque - art (see Ainsworth, op. cit., pp. 298-308). This developing awareness is most evident in the work of Massys and Joos van Cleve, but was nonetheless an influence on the earlier David, who had presumably been exposed to such prototypes in northern Italy as well as possibly by Italian artists working in northern Europe. As Ainsworth notes, there are important similarities between this composition and that of Bernardino de' Conti's Madonna suckling the Child of 1501 (Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti, Bergamo, see fig. 1), of which a number of copies were made by both Italian and northern artists, and it seems likely that this provided at least in part the inspiration for the present type.
It is possible that de' Conti's painting was itself based on a lost Leonardo of before 1499, and in two drawings by the latter, Madonna and Child with the Cat (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe, see fig. 2) and Madonna and Child with a Bowl of Cherries (Musée du Louvre, Paris, see fig. 3), there are indications that this might be the case and that David might also have been influenced by one or more Leonardesque types. Elements of both - notably the position of the Virgin and the legs of the Child, as well as the theme of the latter - seem to recur in David's composition and suggest a possible familiarity with one or both of those compositions, the latter of which was of course so influential for the subsequent generation of northern artists.
The composition was first identified as the work of David by Crowe and Cavalscavelle (Geschichte der altniederländische Malerei, Leipzig, 1875, p. 312). Since then there has been considerable debate over the identification of the earliest version, with the majority of authors regarding the Aurora Trust version (formerly Pannwitz collection) as having primacy, although this has been disputed by authors including Van Miegroet, who argued that the discovery of dotted underdrawing in all the Brussels, Aurora Trust and Genoa pictures suggests the existence of an earlier, either lost or unrecognised, prototype. Most recently, Dr. Ainsworth proposed again that the Aurora Trust picture is the earliest version.
The composition itself is one of David's own devising and reflects the increasing interest in secular themes in art in the early sixteenth century, as well as the growing popularity of, and consciousness of, Italian - and in particular Leonardesque - art (see Ainsworth, op. cit., pp. 298-308). This developing awareness is most evident in the work of Massys and Joos van Cleve, but was nonetheless an influence on the earlier David, who had presumably been exposed to such prototypes in northern Italy as well as possibly by Italian artists working in northern Europe. As Ainsworth notes, there are important similarities between this composition and that of Bernardino de' Conti's Madonna suckling the Child of 1501 (Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti, Bergamo, see fig. 1), of which a number of copies were made by both Italian and northern artists, and it seems likely that this provided at least in part the inspiration for the present type.
It is possible that de' Conti's painting was itself based on a lost Leonardo of before 1499, and in two drawings by the latter, Madonna and Child with the Cat (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe, see fig. 2) and Madonna and Child with a Bowl of Cherries (Musée du Louvre, Paris, see fig. 3), there are indications that this might be the case and that David might also have been influenced by one or more Leonardesque types. Elements of both - notably the position of the Virgin and the legs of the Child, as well as the theme of the latter - seem to recur in David's composition and suggest a possible familiarity with one or both of those compositions, the latter of which was of course so influential for the subsequent generation of northern artists.