(Urbino 1483–1520 Rome)
Madonna dell’Impannata,
oil on panel, 162.5 x 124 cm, framed

*Associate means: a work created within the artist’s near sphere of influence.

Provenance:
possibly collection of Bindo Altoviti, Palazzo Altoviti, Rome;
possibly by descent, Palazzo Altoviti, Rome, recorded in 1644;
possibly collection of Baronessa Teresa Del Nero, Florence (according to a wax seal with the coat-of-arms of the Del Nero family on the reverse);
possibly by inheritance to the collection of the Marchese Carlo Torrigiani, Palazzo Torrigiani, Florence, recorded in 1758-1761;
European private collection

Documented:
possibly inventory of the heirs of Pierozzo Altoviti, Palazzo Altoviti, and the villa, 20 December 1644. ASR, Notai del Tribunale dell’A. C., notaio Dominicus Fontias, vol. 3198, f. 724r: ‘Nella prima camera contigua al salotto: Un quadro della Madonna e san Giovanni Battista copia di Raffaello’;
possibly inventory ‘De’ Mobili dell’Illustrissimo Sig.r Marchese Carlo Torrigiani esistenti nel suo Palazzo di Firenze alla Buca fatto l’Anno 1758 riscontrato, corretto, e ricresciuto sotto di 2 Mag.o 1761 […]’, f. 45, no. 399: ‘N.o 1 Quadro dipinto in Tavola alto B. 2 ½ e largo B. 2 esprimente una Mad.a, Gesù Bamb., S. Giovanni, S. Anna, e S. Elisabetta, si crede di Mano d’un de’ Bronzini Copiato da un’Originale di Raffaello’

Literature:
possibly A. Chong (ed.), Raphael, Cellini & A Renaissance Banker. The patronage of Bindo Altoviti, exhibition catalogue, Boston 2003, pp. 381–382 and p. 449, document no. 5;
possibly C. S. Ellis, An Eighteenth-Century Florentine provenance for some Pictures in the Gerini and Cowper collections, in: Paragone, 83, (707), 2009, p. 82, inv. no. 399

The present painting relates to Raphael’s celebrated work, the Madonna dell’Impannata, commissioned by the banker Bindo Altoviti, now in the Galleria Palatina in Palazzo Pitti, Florence (inv. no. 94).

In 1554, the Altoviti family opposed the power of the Medici and, as a consequence, their Tuscan assets were confiscated by Cosimo I. Raphael’s Madonna dell’Impannata was taken to Palazzo Vecchio where it was reduced and readjusted by Giorgio Vasari to become the central panel of an altarpiece in the chapel of the Quartiere di Leone X. Vasari added lateral panels depicting figures of Saints Cosmas and Damian. His adjustments ended in 1558. When compared to the Raphael panel, the composition of the present painting is longer and has an extended plinth of grey stone, on which the young John the Baptist rests his foot. The same base, in the painting in Palazzo Pitti, is shorter due to the changes made to the original Raphael composition by Vasari in the 1550s, suggesting that the present painting was executed before the Raphael version in Palazzo Pitti was altered and reduced in length.

Inventories suggest that the Altoviti family owned a second version of the Madonna dell’Impannata, possibly also commissioned by Bindo Altoviti for his Roman residence at the same time the Raphael original was sent to Florence. The Roman palace of the Altoviti was located near the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini and was demolished in 1888 (see C. Belloni, Bindo Altoviti. Un banchiere del Rinascimento, Rome 1935, pp. 43–46). It has been suggested that the present painting may be the one cited in the family inventory of 1644 as ‘Un quadro della Madonna e san Giovanni Battista copia di Raffaello’ (‘a painting of the Madonna and Saint John the Baptist copy after Raphael’) in the ‘prima camera contigua al salotto’ (‘room adjoining the salotto’), (see op. cit. A. Chong, 2003, p. 449; for the documents on the Altoviti family, whose archive has been destroyed, see the note on pp. 15–16).

It has been suggested that the present painting may be the one recorded in Palazzo Altoviti in Rome and that it entered the Del Nero family by inheritance. There is a red wax seal on the back of the frame of the Florentine patrician family of Del Nero. The Del Nero family were related to the Altoviti by the marriage of Giovan Battista Altoviti to Luisa Del Nero in 1681 (see the sonnet Stringe lieto Imeneo col cinto d’oro. Nelle nozze del Signor Govambattista Altoviti colla Signora Luisa Del Nero virtuosissima Dama, e Poetessa, published in 1716 in the anthology Poesie Italiane di Rimatrici Viventi Raccolte da Teleste Ciparissiano).

There is a painting listed in an inventory of the eighteenth century documenting the possessions of Carlo Torrigiani, son of Marchese Giovanni Vincenzo and Baronessa Teresa Del Nero, in the ‘camera verde’ of Palazzo Torrigiani in via Romana, Florence (which today houses the Museo della Specola), recorded at number 399: ‘N.o 1 quadro dipinto in Tavola alto B. 2 ½ e largo b. 2 esprimente una Mad.a, Gesù Bamb., S. Anna, e S. Elisabetta, si crede di Mano d’un de’ Bronzini copiato da un’Originale di Raffaello’ (see C. S. Ellis, An Eighteenth-Century Florentine provenance for some Pictures in the Gerini and Cowper collections, in: Paragone, 83 [707], 2009, pp. 71–88).