Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist,
oil on panel, 81.5 x 66.7 cm, framed

We are grateful to Professor Heidi J. Hornink, who has identified the present painting as a product from the workshop of Ghirlandaio painted under the artistic direction of Michele Ghirlandaio. This attribution has been confirmed by Professor David Franklin.

After his first studies under Lorenzo di Credi and Antonio del Ceraiolo, Michele Tosini entered the famous workshop of Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, whose name he later adopted. He was a successful portraitist (whose works were frequently mistaken for Bronzino’s), but also painted religious and allegorical scenes. In 1563, he assisted Vasari in the foundation of the Accademia del Disegno. Some time later, the two artists collaborated in the decoration of the Salone dei Cinquecento at the Palazzo Vecchio. Influenced by Vasari, Tosini adopted elements from Michelangelo’s art for his own. In his later period, Tosini received commissions for the decoration of three Florentine town gates, for an altarpiece in the chapel of the Villa Caserotta near San Casciano, and for paintings on the tabernacle of the high altar in Santa Maria della Quercia in Viterbo. When Ridolfo Ghirlandaio withdrew from the workshop, then the largest and most renowned in Florence, it was put under Tosini’s direction.