Lot 74: Girolamo Genga (Urbino c. 1476-1551)

The Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist oil on panel 371/4 x 283/4 in. (94.6 x 72.8 cm.) PROVENANCE Sir Henry H. Howorth, 45 Lexham Gardens, London; (+) Christie's, London, 14 December 1923, lot 90 (220 gns. to Sampson). Anon. Sale [Collection provenant de chƒteau ‚trang‚r], Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 8 September 1924, lot 100 (9,500 francs to the father of the present owner). LITERATURE B. Berenson, The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance, New York/London, 1897, p. 196. B. Berenson, The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance, New York/London, 1909, 2nd edn. (revised and enlarged), p. 174. B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. A List of the Principal Artists and their Works, Oxford, 1932, p. 221. B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central Italian and North Italian Schools, London, 1968 (newly revised and illustrated edn.), I, p. 163, III, pl. 1841. L. Moscone, in Dizionario Bolaffi dei Pittori e degli incisori italiani dall' XI al XX secolo, V, Turin, 1974, pp. 318-9, illustrated. F. Todini, 'Una Sacra Famiglia di Gerolamo Genga', Studi di Storia dell'Arte, IV, 1993, p. 292. EXHIBITION London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1909, no. 62. NOTES This is one of the two most important compositions by the painter and architect Girolamo Genga to remain in private hands (the other being the Madonna della Misericordia ). It was probably painted in circa 1507-9. As Vasari states, Girolamo Genga, whose family came from Genga in the March‚, was first apprenticed to Luca Signorelli, probably when the latter went to Urbino in 1494. He probably accompanied Signorelli to Cortona (1495 and 1497), Loreto (1496), and Siena (1497-8). In approximately 1498 he seems to have left Signorelli's workshop and went to Perugia where he worked for Pietro Perugino until 1501. Although it is not certain at what date before 1500 Raphael entered Perugino's workshop, the two are likely to have met each other there. The innovative compositions of Perugino, with elegant and classical figures set in light green hills with finely painted trees, had a great impact on both young painters. In Genga's work this is reflected in the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian (Uffizi, Florence) which can be dated to that period. The Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist shows the artist's first reaction to the great Tuscan masters, and in particular Michelangelo, with whose work he came into contact in Florence in circa 1507-9. Although the landscape with its delicate trees is very close to the picture in the Uffizi, the compact composition and monumental figures differ from Perugino in style, and are more reminiscent of Michelangelo's early sculptures. This balance of Umbrian and Florentine influence results in the tranquil style also found in The Madonna and Child with Saints in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena. However, it is not certain precisely when Genga arrived in Florence as he is documented as being in Urbino in 1507 and in 1508 when he was entrusted with the decorations for the funeral of Duke Guidobaldo I da Montefeltro. Genga's work in the Palazzo Petrucci in Siena is traditionally dated to 1509 and he is documented in Siena in 1510. During this period the influences of Sodoma and Girolamo del Pacchia become more apparent than those of his earlier mentors. A terminus ante quem is 1513, when Genga signed the contract for the Dispute on the Immaculate Conception (Brera, Milan), which is different in style and crowded in composition. The contract for that altarpiece, painted in Cesena, attests that although moving between the various art centres of Tuscany, Genga considered himself to be an Urbinate artist resident in Florence ( 'gironimo da urbino pictore in fiorenza' ). The picture was first recorded in the collection of Sir Henry Howorth by Bernard Berenson in 1897 ( loc. cit ). The 1923 sale of Sir Henry Howorth's 100 or so pictures in these Rooms consisted mainly of the Italian and Dutch schools. It included Andrea Previtali's Rest on the Flight into Eqypt (Buscot Park, the Faringdon Collection) and Samuel van Hoogstraten's famous Peep Show (National Gallery, London). SALESROOM NOTICE Please note the additional literature: B. Patzak, Die Ville Imperiale bei Pesare, Leipzig, 1908, p. 31, no. 65. A. Petrioli Tofani, 'Per Girolamo Genga (II)', Paragone, no. 231, 1969, pp. 50-1, fig. 40. A. Morandotti, 'Gerolamo Genga negli anni della pala di Sant' Agostino a Cesena', Studi di Storia dell' Arte, 4, 1993, pp. 289-304.