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Lot Essay
Painted late in his career, this engaging depiction of The Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist is a beautiful example of Raffaellino del Garbo’s mature style. Raffaellino was a pupil of Filippino Lippi and while his master’s influence remained apparent throughout his career, he was also inspired by the elegant, linear styles of the celebrated Florentine painters, Ghirlandaio, Botticelli and Piero di Cosimo.
The Christ Child strides animatedly across His mother’s lap, reaching His left arm around her neck and steadying Himself with His right, and the Madonna bends her head affectionately towards Him, pulling Him closer to her. The arrangement of these central figures recalls that employed repeatedly by Botticelli, perhaps to best effect in his tondo dating to the 1490s in the Cleveland Museum of Art (R. Lightbown, Sandro Botticelli, London, 1978, II, pp. 124–25, no. C19, illustrated). In Botticelli’s design, the Christ Child gazes at his mother and the Madonna looks downward with a melancholic expression. In Raffaellino’s rendering, however, both Mother and Child look outward, directly toward the viewer. This more engaging pose is associated with designs commonly given to Piero di Cosimo, such as that formerly on the London art market, published by Anna Forlani Tempesti and Elena Capretti in 1996 (Piero di Cosimo, Florence, 1996, p. 95, no. 5, illustrated). Like a number of similar compositions, the London tondo was considered by some scholars, Everett Fahy among them, to in fact be the work of Raffaellino del Garbo. The pose appears in at least nine versions, attributed variously to Piero, Francesco and Raffaello Botticini and Botticelli, and listed by Forlani Tempesti and Capretti (ibid., p. 150, nos. B1-B9). The landscape included in the background of the present tondo does not feature in any of the other versions, however, and is thus an aspect unique to this painting.
The tondo format was popularised in the 1440s, rising from the Renaissance fascination with the circular form. Having no beginning and no end, circles were associated with divine infinity and were incorporated into designs of both art and architecture. In paintings, the tondo format challenged the artist to create a harmonious composition within the confines of the shape. Here, for example, Raffaellino expertly balances the composition, leaning the Madonna downward in a convincing gesture of intimacy, which simultaneously accommodates the curve of the panel. Her seated form and crooked elbow are offset by the figure of the Infant Saint John the Baptist at left and the contemplative figures of Saints Jerome and Francis appear almost above her shoulders in dialogue in the background.
The Christ Child strides animatedly across His mother’s lap, reaching His left arm around her neck and steadying Himself with His right, and the Madonna bends her head affectionately towards Him, pulling Him closer to her. The arrangement of these central figures recalls that employed repeatedly by Botticelli, perhaps to best effect in his tondo dating to the 1490s in the Cleveland Museum of Art (R. Lightbown, Sandro Botticelli, London, 1978, II, pp. 124–25, no. C19, illustrated). In Botticelli’s design, the Christ Child gazes at his mother and the Madonna looks downward with a melancholic expression. In Raffaellino’s rendering, however, both Mother and Child look outward, directly toward the viewer. This more engaging pose is associated with designs commonly given to Piero di Cosimo, such as that formerly on the London art market, published by Anna Forlani Tempesti and Elena Capretti in 1996 (Piero di Cosimo, Florence, 1996, p. 95, no. 5, illustrated). Like a number of similar compositions, the London tondo was considered by some scholars, Everett Fahy among them, to in fact be the work of Raffaellino del Garbo. The pose appears in at least nine versions, attributed variously to Piero, Francesco and Raffaello Botticini and Botticelli, and listed by Forlani Tempesti and Capretti (ibid., p. 150, nos. B1-B9). The landscape included in the background of the present tondo does not feature in any of the other versions, however, and is thus an aspect unique to this painting.
The tondo format was popularised in the 1440s, rising from the Renaissance fascination with the circular form. Having no beginning and no end, circles were associated with divine infinity and were incorporated into designs of both art and architecture. In paintings, the tondo format challenged the artist to create a harmonious composition within the confines of the shape. Here, for example, Raffaellino expertly balances the composition, leaning the Madonna downward in a convincing gesture of intimacy, which simultaneously accommodates the curve of the panel. Her seated form and crooked elbow are offset by the figure of the Infant Saint John the Baptist at left and the contemplative figures of Saints Jerome and Francis appear almost above her shoulders in dialogue in the background.