Lot 8: Bartolomeo di Giovanni (active Florence c. 1475-1501 Florence)

Bartolomeo di Giovanni (active Florence c. 1475-1501 Florence) The Madonna and Child oil on poplar panel 35 3/8 x 19 5/8 in. (89.9 x 49.8 cm.)

89.9 x 49.8 cm.

G. De Francovich, ‘Nuovi aspetti della personalità di Bartolomeo di Giovanni’, Bollettino d’arte del Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, VI, 1926, p. 71, fig. 3. S. Rubinstein-Bloch, Catalogue of the Collection of George and Florence Blumenthal, Paris, 1926, I, pl. XIV. R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, The Hague, 1931, XIII, p. 250, fig. 171. B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School, London, 1963, I, p. 26. E.E. Gardner and F. Zeri, Italian Paintings. A catalogue of the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Florentine School, New York, 1971, p. 141. B.B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge, 1972,p. 16. E. Fahy, Some Followers of Domenico Ghirlandaio, New York and London, 1976, p. 161, no. 82.

Arnaldo Corsi (1853-1919), Florence. George and Florence Blumenthal, New York, by 1926, and until 1941, when gifted to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,inv. no. 41.100.1, until de-accessioned in 1973; Sotheby’s, New York, 15 February 1973, lot 21.

The rediscovery of Bartolomeo di Giovanni is owed largely to the work of Bernard Berenson. Identifying a number of pictures closely linked to the work of the leading Florentine Domenico Ghirlandaio, Berenson, for lack of further documentary evidence, labelled the artist ‘Alunno di Domenico’. His journey towards the attribution of this group, and its successful conclusion, makes for fascinating reading. Indeed, it was the subject of the very first article of The Burlington Magazine, a manifesto piece celebrating the values and virtues of connoisseurship, see B. Berenson, ‘Alunno di Domenico’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. 1, no. 1, March 1903, pp. 3-20. Berenson singles out a passage in Ghirlandaio’s Adoration of the Magi (for the Spedale degli Innocenti, Florence), representing the Massacre of the Innocents. Berenson located the particularly flowing and expressive style of this pupil, placing him at the intersection of three illustrious Florentine names: ‘a close follower of Ghirlandaio, with strong leanings towards Botticelli, and a liking for Piero di Cosimo’s fanciful landscape’ (op. cit., p. 11). Happily, evidence did soon surface shortly after to enable the artist to be identified as Bartolomeo di Giovanni. Since then biographical details have been added, newly attributed pictures have come to light and his artistic personality has been shaped with greater clarity. Nicoletta Pons, in her catalogue to accompany the dedicated exhibition staged at the Museo di San Marco in Florence in 2004, suggested that he ought to be more strictly considered as a collaborator, rather than pupil, of Ghirlandaio and Botticelli (see N. Pons (ed.), Bartolomeo di Giovanni. Collaboratore di Ghirlandaio e Botticelli, Florence, 2004). Pons notes, for example, Bartolomeo’s assistance on such major projects as the fresco of The Calling of Peter and Andrew in the Sistine Chapel. Datable to circa 1500, this is a fine example of his mature style, comparable to the picture of the same subject in the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille. In the 1971 catalogue of the Metropolitan holdings, Federico Zeri underlined how this picture succeeded in harmonising those two great influences of the late quattrocento, Botticelli and Ghirlandaio. The type of the Madonna herself, and the treatment of the drapery demonstrate a clear understanding of the former, while the more simplified forms of the composition and the colour scheme reveal the key tutelage of Ghirlandaio. Zeri added that the highly decorative band of fruit and ribbons that surrounds the niche was a favourite motif used in the workshop of the della Robbia family. The panel formed part of the collection of the Florentine industrialist Arnaldo Corsi (1853-1919), who amassed what Zeri described as one of the most extraordinary private collections of its time (see F. Zeri in F. Zeri and A. Bacchi (eds.), Il museo nascosto: capolavori dalla Galleria Corsi nel Museo Bardini, exhibition catalogue, Florence, 1991, p. 11), before passing to the financier George Blumenthal, who, together with his first wife, Florence Meyer Blumenthal, was a key philanthropist in the US and Europe. Their extensive collection was the subject of a lavish, six-volume catalogue, published in Paris in 1926. Blumenthal was president of the Metropolitan Museum from 1934 until his death in 1941, when this picture was gifted to the museum, before being later de-accessioned in 1973.