Lot 127: JACOPO CARUCCI, CALLED PONTORMO

JACOPO CARUCCI, CALLED PONTORMO PONTORMO NEAR EMPOLI 1494 - 1556 FLORENCE SAINT FRANCIS; THE PENITENT SAINT JEROME a pair, both oil on panel the former: 11 1/4 by 4 3/4 in.; 28.5 by 12 cm. the latter: 11 3/8 by 4 3/4 cm.; 29 by 12 cm.

Pennsylvania State University; Joseph and Margaret Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg; Springfield Museum of Fine Art; Italian Renaissance Art. Selections from the Piero Corsini Gallery, 1987, cat. no. 13 (as School of Rosso Fiorentino);
London, Whitfield Fine Art, Old Masters in a Modern Light, 22 June–17 July 2009 (as Pontormo);
Monaco, Maison d'Art, Important Old Masters in a New Light, 2–18 September 2009 (as Pontormo).

B. Wollesen-Wisch, Italian Renaissance Art. Selections from the Piero Corsini Gallery, exh. cat., Florence 1986, pp. 38-39 (as School of Rosso Fiorentino);
P. Costamagna, Pontormo, Milan 1994, p. 38, p. 137 under note no. 2, reproduced p. 134 (where published as attributed to Pontormo);J. Cox-Rearick, The Burlington Magazine, 139, no. 1127, February 1997, p. 127 (where listed as probably not by Pontormo);
Old Masters in a Modern Light, exh. cat., London, Whitfield Fine Art, 2009, pp. 30-33 (as Pontormo);
Important Old Masters in a New Light, exh. cat., Monaco, Maison d'Art, 2009, pp. 28-31 (as Pontormo).

Major George Frederick Myddleton Cornwallis-West (1874-1951); Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 19 January 1954, lot 138 as Beccafumi where offered with two other panels representing a Madonna and Mary Magdalene, and a Saint John the Evangelist;
With Julius H. Weitzner, New York, by January 1955;
Count Leonardo Vitetti (1895–1973), Rome, as Pontormo;
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Lady'), London, Sotheby's, 16 May 1984, lot 60 as circle of Pontormo, for £3,500, where offered with the two aforementioned panels;
With Piero Corsini, New York, by 1986, as School of Rosso Fiorentino;
Private collection, New York.

These two small panels are early works by the leading exponent of Florentine Mannerism, Jacopo Carucci, better known after his native town of Pontormo. In his 1994 monograph Dr Philippe Costamagna (see Literature) links the panels, which he dates to the years 1517-18, to Pontormo's celebrated and stylistically groundbreaking Pucci altarpiece in the church of San Michele Visdomini in Florence, which is dated 1518. Considered by Vasari to be Pontormo's masterpiece, the altarpiece broke with the classicism of the early years of the sixteenth century and marked a shift to the more self-conscious and emotionally-charged style known as Mannerism. The altarpiece was commissioned by Francesco di Giovanni Pucci (1437-1518), gonfaloniere of the Florentine Republic and a fervent Medici supporter who dedicated the altarpiece to his namesake, Saint Francis. In a similar spirit, the names of the other saints in the composition relate to members of Francesco's family: the figure of John the Evangelist is linked to Francesco's father Giovanni, while the figure of Saint James commemorates his son Giacomo who had died in 1515.

Costamagna, who since the publication of his monograph has confirmed a full attribution to Pontormo, points out that the rapid brushwork of the panels is stylistically similar to some of the figures of the artist's Stories of Joseph in the National Gallery in London, commissioned in 1515 on the occasion of the wedding of Pierfrancesco Borgherini and Margherita Acciaiuoli. Certain features, particularly the modelling of the hands and bodies, and the wispy strands of Saint Jerome's beard reflect Pontormo's experiments at the time with the description of small figures in large surroundings, particularly in the Joseph panels. Unsurprisingly, the panels also find affinity with preparatory drawings for the Pucci altarpiece. Though reversed, the pose of the Saint Francis is closely linked to the figure in the altarpiece, for which a drawing can be found in the J. Paul Getty Museum (see fig. 1).

As mentioned by Costamagna and as witnessed by the auction catalogues of 1954 and 1984 (see Provenance), the two panels were for the last century or so misattributed and framed with two other small panels by another hand representing a Madonna and Magdalene, and a Saint John the Evangelist clearly taken from another altarpiece. Despite these incorrect attributions, Pontormo's name has been associated with the panels for some time now: Costamagna mentions that photographs of the panels with the name of Pontormo inscribed in Berenson's hand on the verso can be found in the late scholar's archives in Villa I Tatti near Florence.