FG FINE ART LTD
Andrea Boscoli
Florence, 1560 c. -1607
This Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist exemplifies Andrea Boscoli’s mature engagement with late sixteenth-century Florentine Mannerism. Boscoli was trained in Florence in the circle of Santi di Tito, with whom he absorbed the principles of late sixteenth-century Florentine reform painting. A brief period of study in Rome in the early 1590s was important for his formation, encouraging close engagement with classical antiquity and with the fresco cycles of Polidoro da Caravaggio, as evidenced by an extensive surviving corpus of drawings.
Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist
Oil on panel, 92.1 x 70.2 cm
1594
PROVENANCE
Rome, Joachim (Gioacchino) Ferroni, until 1909
Rome, his estate sale, Jandolo e Tavazzi, Galleria Sangiorgio, 14-22 April 1909, lot 676
Munich and Berlin, Julius Böhler Gallery and Galerie Paul Cassirer, 24 November 1921
Prague, from whom acquired by R. Svoboda, 21 October 1922
Prague, private collection until 1946 c. where confiscated
Prague, National Gallery, acquired in 1950 (inv. O 10297)
Returned to the heirs of the aforementioned private collection in 1992
Prague, National Gallery, on loan from 1992
New York, Sotheby’s, 1 February 2024, lot 329
EXHIBITION
Warsaw, National Museum, Sztuka czasów Michała Anioła: wystawa w czterechset setną rocznicę
śmierci artysty, December 1963 - March 1964
BIBIOGRAPHY
Libro di debitori e chreditori di Andrea di Francescho Boscholi, MS, Biblioteca Moreniana, Firenze, Bigazzi 169, fol. 11v
A. Forlani, Andrea Boscoli, in ”Proporzioni”, 4, 1963, pp. 103, 132
D. Heikamp, II Libro di debitori e creditori di Andrea Boscoli, in ”Proporzioni”, 4, 1963, p. 184
J. Białostocki, Il tempo di Michelangelo: mostra commemorativa nel quarto centenario della morte dell’artista, exhibition catalogue, Warsaw 1963, pp. 66-67
L. Daniel, National Gallery in Prague, European Old Masters: Šternberk Palace, Prague 1993, p. 40
F. Baldassari, Dipinti Fiorentini del Seicento e del Settecento. Florentine Paintings of the 17th and
18th Centuries, Padua 2007, p. 8
N. Bastogi, Andrea Boscoli, Florence 2008, pp. 123-125, 230, 239-240, 284
Boscoli early career is documented primarily through works on paper, which show a confident use of light and shadow, a rapid and expressive handling of visual references. Alongside Florentine models of the early Cinquecento, his drawings and paintings reflect awareness of contemporary artistic developments in central Italy. The fresco of the Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew (1587, Florence, Church of San Pier Maggiore) marks his first secure pictorial commission and exemplifies his assimilation of reformed naturalism combined with lessons drawn from Roman art.
From the late 1580s onward, Boscoli received commissions in Florence and Pisa, producing altarpieces and narrative scenes characterized by compositional clarity, vivid chromatic effects, and a restrained but persuasive devotional tone aligned with Counter-Reformation ideals.
This lively and vibrant painting presents a masterful use of contemporary tonalities, with striking shades. The composition breathes life into the figures through a soft portrayal of the Virgin, reminiscent of Neo-Pontormo’s style, and the ethereal quality of John the Baptist’s hair and fleece. The meticulous emphasis on anatomical accuracy, underscored by the balanced use of shadows, alongside the intricate arrangement of drapery, echo the artistic fervour of the early 1590s.
All the stylistic elements confirm a dating around 1594, as proposed by Forlani, who convincingly suggested associating this work with the painting documented on December 20, 1594, in Boscoli’s libro dei conti that details a transaction involving forty-two lire for this piece (alongside another work) to “Master Luca di Potenti,” a craftsman from Borgo San Jacopo, Florence:
Master Luca di … Potenti, woodworker, presently living in the borough of San Jacopo sopra Arno, must be paid, as of the 20th of December 1594, forty-two lire. This sum is for having had made for me two canvases of about one braccio and a third in size. Painted on them are: on one, Our Lady with the Child in her arms, who presents the Cross to Saint John the Baptist; on the other, a dead Christ upon the tomb, embraced by Our Lady, Saint Mary Magdalene kissing His hand, and Nicodemus supporting Him under the arms. Given to him outright”.
While the panel shares many affinities with the earlier Boscoli’s Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist, formerly in the Luzzetti collection, Florence , the latter appears more archaic in its experimental character. By contrast, a close resemblance connects the Virgin’s face, with its ovals of geometric regularity framed by the two cylindrical bands of hair, to those of Juno and Diana in the Villa di Corliano in Pisa.
While certain aspects of the subject may invite scrutiny, the painting’s stylistic coherence with contemporaneous works, such as the frescoes of Corliano and the Kings and Prophets of San Matteo in Pisa, underscores its creation during the last decade of the 16th century.
The connection with the Pisan works is also evident in the structure of the drapery, turgid and deeply penetrated by shadow as it composes itself into rhythms of complex facture. Clear Pontormesque echoes and evident sartorial references emerge in the folds and filigree-like articulations of these forms, explored by the young Empoli in his Madonnas, while at the same time revealing Andrea’s distinctive interpretative qualities.
Boscoli’s Neo-Pontormesque attention to the chipped, swirling folds of the cloaks, the deep shadows inhabiting the eye sockets or cast across the forehead, and the lucid transparency of a palette composed of muted pinks, yellows, and purples—occasionally flecked with sharper, higher-pitched shadows—is especially noteworthy. The plump hands of the Virgin and the bodies of the two children move beyond mere stylization to acquire a median tone of everyday naturalness and a charming irregularity of profiles, bending themselves to the formal articulation of emotions. Although the face of the Madonna may appear abstract and distant, her hands and the expressive gestures of the Child, holding one end of a ribbon inscribed with “ECCE AGN[US] DEI,” constitute the point from which that emotional chain unfolds, embracing the children through gestures and faces in the game-symbol of the fruit. In this restitution of illustrious models reinterpreted in a lyrical and intimate key, the full depth of Santi di Tito’s teaching is revealed, and above all the affectionate and tender influence of Barocci’s painting of the affections.
Rendered with the chromatic sophistication characteristic of Boscoli’s oeuvre, in this work the artist amalgamates diverse artistic influences from Pontormo to Barocci.
The painting was formerly in the collection of Joachim (Gioacchino) Ferroni in Rome, where it remained until his death. It subsequently appeared in the sale of his estate, held in Rome by Jandolo e Tavazzi at the Galleria Sangiorgio between 14 and 22 April 1909, where it was offered as lot 676 and attributed to the Florentine School of the fifteenth century. By 24 November 1921, the work had entered the art market in Germany and was jointly owned by the Julius Böhler Gallery in Munich and the Galerie Paul Cassirer in Berlin. The painting was later in Prague, from where it was acquired by R. Svoboda on 21 October 1922. Confiscated around 1946, it was later acquired by the Narodni Galerie in Prague (inventory no. 0-10297) in 1950, the painting was returned to heirs of the previous owner in 1992 which left it on loan at the museum until recent time.
A full fact sheet is available on request.
