The Holy Family with San Giovannino

Oil on table

120 x 90cm.

In antique frame 146 x 90 cm.

The work comes accompanied by the expertise of Professor Stephan D. Pepper, dated 5.12.96 (Rome)

A painting of great charm and collectible relevance is examined, a high quality version of the famous 'Holy family with San Giovannino' created in 1528 by Andrea del Sarto (Florence 1486 - 1530), one of the most outstanding exponents among the protagonists of the full Florentine Renaissance.

Better known as the "Holy Family Borgherini" from the name of the client Giovanni Borgherini, a member of one of the most important Florentine families of the time, it is now kept in the Metropolitan Museum of New York (Inv. 22.75).

Official museum fact sheet: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/110002062

With this grandly solemn composition, Sarto confirmed that he was «the flawless painter», as Giorgio Vasari liked to call him: his figures are masterfully drawn, rendered with splendid chromatic harmony, and finally the relationship between the figures, arranged with an air of nobility , gives us a sublime choreography that connects the four characters.

The painting, commissioned in the same year in which Florence managed to free itself from the dominion of the Medici and declared itself a Republic, also contains a political meaning, with John the Baptist, the city's patron saint, who offers the terrestrial globe with the cross to the little Jesus Child, continuing but to shake it with his hands, to symbolize that both - therefore both the city and the Church - will act as protectors and guarantors of the freedom of the Florentine republic.

Considered one of the most important jewels of the Florentine Renaissance, a masterpiece of the painter's early maturity, it was one of the artist's most admired and copied compositions, enjoying particular fortune with Florentine collectors already at the time: this explains the numerous copies, autograph or workshops, which enrich as many international museums [1].

Although there is not, in terms of composition, a perfect correspondence between the original and the painting that we propose - which in fact slavishly reproduces the compositional structure - there are also differences in the pictorial layout and in the consequent appearance.

The very high pictorial quality that distinguishes this work allows us to associate its authorship with a leading author of Florentine origin of the early sixteenth century, who was able to restore all the original poetry, albeit personalizing it with his own stylistic imprint.

In particular, the pictorial material applied in a uniform way and the superb use of the nuanced, with a modeling that leads us - as suggested by Stephan D. Pepper in his report - to rediscover the youthful hand of Agnolo di Cosimo, know as 'il Bronzino (Monticelli di Florence, 1503 - Florence, 1572), undisputed master for the accuracy in the drafting of the pictorial material and the 'veiling' treatment, with which he made his painting glazed and transparent.

From the first works, Bronzino developed an unmistakable style, unique for its elegance, compositional balance, and chromatic splendor, with a unique pictorial power made possible by a modeling with decisive lines, which gives the figures a sculptural and smooth appearance similar to porcelain .

Elements such as the spots of light that illuminate the subjects, or the semi-transparent veil of the Madonna have been rendered here in a virtuosic way.

[1] Among the various copies inspired by the Bolgherini Holy Family, made both by Sarche's workshop and by authors who were his contemporaries, and today kept in private and public collections, we can mention:

- Florence, Uffizi Palazzo Pitti: https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/0900228523

- Cesare da Sesto, Candiani Milano: http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/39944/Anonimo%20sec.%20XVI%2C%20Sacred%20Famigl....

- Auction Christie's Rome, 5 Jun 2000: https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-1792564

- Sotheby's New York auction, 9 January 1980: http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/39946/Anonimo%20sec.%20XVI%2C%20Sacra%20Famigli...

- Bonaiuti Collection, Rome (Lazio, Italy): http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/39947/Anonimo%20sec.%20XVI%2C%20Sacra%20Famigli....

- Gasparrini, Rome (attr. Circignani Nicolò called Pomarancio): http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/39943/Anonimo%20sec.%20XVI%2C%20Sacra%20Famigli....

The canvas is in excellent condition. Complete with antique frame.