Description
GIOVANNI DI BENEDETTO CIANFANINI; GIOVANNI DI BENEDETTO CIANFANINI,
Tempera e tempera grassa su tavola circolare,
Firenze - 1462 - 1542,
The Virgin the infant Saviour with little St. John,
Tempera and oily tempera on circular wood board,
diameter cm 72,
diameter with frame cm 102,
Coeval carved gilt wood frame with high relief flowers buds,
and leaves carving with ribbons,
Internal and external rim with small bass relief palms,
Thickness cm 15 diameter cm 102,
Provenance,
John Rushout, 2nd Baron Northwick esq. 1859,
Philliphs Auction in Northwick 26 July - 30 August 1859,
Acquired by W.E.S. Erle Drax, M.P. Londra & Kent,
Parke Bernet Auction New York 10 - 11 May 1940, lot 40,
Literature,
-Dr Wangen (Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Treasures of art in Great Britain,
being an account of the chief collections of paintings, etc., etc.,
vol. III, London John Murray, Abemarle street., 1854, p. 196.,,,
-Graves A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1915 pag 1866.,
-G. Redford, Art Sales, A History of Sales of Pictures and Other Works of Art,
London, George Redford, 1888-III pag 227,
Exhibitions,
Exhibition New Gallery London Early Italian Art 1893 n 135 Label on the back,
Loan by W, E, S, Drax,
Exhibition Olantigh Towers J.S.W.S Erle Drax Label on the back,
Conditio Report,
On request a specialized and professional condition report.,
Anyway a superficial and general view gives a positive response,
on the wood board and paint condition, suggested by overall,
view of the brush paint thickness, that can still be seen,
on a live study of the board,
Little restored spots can be seen on a live view of the board,
The painting has an important history, evidence are the repeated passages in collections of important English collectors of Italian art. However, we have no news about the painting before 1854: the subject ‘the Virgin the infant savior and little St. John’does not allow it, to recognize it in the infinite number of circular paintings recorded in the noble family inventories. Probably it was commissioned for an important Florentine family, from which in the nineteenth century, with the affirmation of pre-Raphaelite art, was bought and sent in England. The first critic who named this specific painting in 1854 was the famous historian of German art Gustav Friedrich Waagen (Hamburg 1784-Copenhagen 1868), who describes the art work, in his impressive account of Treasures of art in Great Britain, among the works to be remembered in the great collection of John Rushout, Second Baron of Northwick London 1770- Northwick Park 1859), at Thirlestaine House, in the town of Cheltenham (Gloucestershire). Waagen accredit the painting to Lorenzo di Credi's, emphasizing Very mild and pure in feeling, and particularly delicate in the silver-tones of the drapery (Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Treasures of art in Great Britain: drawings, sculptures, illuminated mss, etc., vol. III, London, John Murray, Abemarle Street, 1854, p. 196). Waagen's observations reveals his romantic passion drenched with spontaneity of feelings and emotional value of the colors, highlighting the peculiarities of the work and the angelic naturalness (which will certainly hit Lord Northwick emotions, as described by Waagen as a vivid Catholic), . At the Baron's death (1859), his collection was sold by the Phillips Son & Neale auction house in London. In the rich catalog of the sale there are several paintings attributed to Lorenzo di Credi, the work in question is probably identifiable with the Sacred Family no. 574 of the sale, because in the description of the work we find the same words used by Wagen: and especially delicate in the silver-tones . though n 579 pages 59 adopt such a description. (...) at Thirlestane House, Cheltenham, which will be sold by Auctions by Mr. Phillips, and will be published in the US at at the maison, July 26 - August 30, 1859, p. 58, 574 p. 58, p. 579 p. 59 p. 30, p. 293, p. 1683 pp. 151). p. 30, n. 293). The painting was probably purchased by noble John Samuel Wanley Sanford-Erle-Drax (Oglantigh Towers, Kent), who at the end of the century presented the art work to the Italian painting exhibition from 1300 to 1550 organized by the New Gallery in London. In the catalog the table is still recorded with the attribution to Lorenzo di Credi (Leonard C. Lindsay, Exhibition of Early Italian Art from 1300 to 1550, London, The New Gallery, 1893-1894, 135). In 1940, The work was again sold for sale at Parke Bernet Park in New York on 10-11 May (page 36, 40, fig.). On this occasion the attribution to Lorenzo di Credi was maintained, but in a note it was stated that the painting was previously shown to one of the most renowned Italian art experts (of which no name is given), which had noted that the work did not belong to Lorenzo's hand, but to that of an unknown Florentine master working in close relation to Credi. There were doubts about the traditional attribution that was also maintained in the subsequent Sothebys sale in April 1973 On this date the work was presented by Sotheby's always in New York. In the catalog the attribution to Credi was accompanied by the asterisk ascribed to (Sotheby's, New York, April 4, 1973, No. 165). Doubts about the autograph of the painting were confirmed by Federico Zeri, who at the traditional assignment to Lorenzo di Credi preferred a more cautious reference “attribuito”, and positioned the works in the folder named ” Anonymous followers of Lorenzo di Credi, TommasoPietro del Donzello, Master 1487, ” where he is still (Bologna, Fondazione Zeri, Busta 165, file 1, card 13064). In fact, although tied by composition and typology to the production of Lorenzo di Credi, shows a different hand, which defines the figures with an incisive sign, which at times deforms the physiognomies, and tints the scene of cold shades from the reverberations metal. This hand is that of a close associate of the Florentine master whose personality began to be defined by Giovanni Morelli in 1890. The famous critic analyzing the works of the Borghese Gallery Borghese Museum, Rome) separeted a small group of paintings from the Di Credi corpus, and attribute them to a master of Di Credi work shop called 'Tommaso'. The Morelli hypothesis has been positively welcomed by the critic, and as time went by the catalogue of this strong di credi collaborator has been enriched, and up to today with over 60 works, of which a great number are circular with identical composition solution that are repeated in serial way, plus there are almost twenty drawings, one of this is located in the British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings, inv. 1963, 1109.23, black pencil and biacca cm 19, 8 x 17) to be considered a preparatory drawing for the Virgin figure.,
Like Lorenzo di Credi this painter did not make frescoes, he worked on wood board using mainly tempera colors, stretched out vigorously. In addition to this kind of paintings he made at least two altarpiece: an Assumption of the Virgin (dated 1510) in Calenzano, in the Pieve di Santa Maria a Carraia, and the Sacred Conversation of the Holy Spirit in Florence. He discarded the conventional name of Thomaswhich could make him confounded with Thomas of Stefano Lunetti (about 1495-1564), a late follower of Credi from the very different artistic personality, criticized himself in the assignment of a name different to this painter: Master of the Tondi Master of Our Lady Czartoryski Master of St. Sebastian Fitzwilliam, Master of the Conversation of Holy Spirit. This latter name, given by Gigetta Dalli Regoli (Lorenzo di Credi, Milan, Community Editions 1966, p. 71), has ended up superseding the others. At the same time, G. Dalli Regoli proposed to recognize the anonymous master in Giovanni di Benedetto Cianfanini (1462-1542), one of those Florentine painters, documented between the end of the 15th and the first decades of the sixteenth century, of which no works were known. This, around 1480, was in the workshop of Sandro Botticelli, from which he passed to Fra 'Bartolomeo. With years he had a profound relationship with Lorenzo di Credi (1459 / 60-1537), who seemed to be an assistant in 1523 and a collaborator on other occasions (Dominic Ellis Colnaghi, A dictionary of Florentine painters from the 13th to the 17th centuries, London, Lane, 1928, p. 71). Cianfanini, born in 1462, therefore had a completely fifteenth-century formation that, after many years of activity, had to refresh on the most loose and natural rhythms of the sixteenth-century proto-classicism, promoted by Fr. Bartolomeo, without affecting the well-established late fifteenth century typologies of his own production, still very ambitious in the first sixteenth century by the Florentine commission (Everett Fahy, Florence and the ancient Netherlands 1430-1530 dialogue between artists: from Jan van Eyck to Ghirlandaio, from Memling to Raphael, exhibition catalog by Bert W. Meijer, Florence, Palazzo Pitti, June 20-October 26, 2008, Livorno, Sillabe, 2008, p. 148). This data is perfectly matched with the archaic tone of the painting corpus referred to the Master of Conversation of the Holy Spirit, as shown, for example, the Assumption of the Virgin of Calenzano dated 1510. For these reasons, today's criticism no longer exists reservations in recognizing in the anonymous Master the personality of Cianfanini (Alessandra Tamborino, Master of Conservation of Holy Spirit, Giovanni di Benedetto Cianfanini, PhD thesis, University of Florence, Prof. Mina Gregori, 2007- 2010).,
In the still uncertain chronology of the painter's work, the table in question appears in the most representative work of the master, namely the Sacred Conversation of the Holy Spirit, the table which gave the artist the name of the painter's corpus, before the latter identified with Cianfanini. The quasi-rural roundness of the figures and the search for an incisive design that ends up expressing the expressionisms in an expressionist way and to sharpen the shapes from the bottom are identical solutions in the two works: it is enough to compare the figure of the Child in the Sacred Conversation (fig. 6), with the corresponding figures of the round in question (Figure 7).,,,
The painting of S. Spirito is still in the chapel for which it was commissioned by Francesco d'Agostino Biliotti, around 1512 (Alessandro Cecchi, in The Workshop of Manner, Variety and Fine Art in Florentine Art of the Sixteenth Century the two republics 1494-1530, Venice, Marsilio, 1996, p. 242). Next to this date we will also have to place this work, one of the best of Giovanni di Benedetto Cianfanini.,,
