FG FINE ART LTD
Girolamo del Pacchia
Siena, 1477 - 1530
This charming panel boasts a prestigious provenance from the Achille De Clemente collection, in which it had arrived, at an unspecified time, from the Pedulli collection in Florence. The first know image of the work, which has always referred to the Sienese Girolamo del Pacchia, is in fact precisely that from the catalogue of the auction of the De Clemente collection, organized by the American Art Association on 17 January 1931.
Madonna and Child with Saint Joseph and Saint Catherine of Siena
Oil on panel, 82.6 x 57.2 cm
Provenance
Siena, canonico Mugnai, 1821
Florence, Pedulli collection
Florence, Achille De Clemente collection
New York, The Collection of Achille De Clemente, American Art Association, January 15-17, 1931, lotto 492
Bibliography
L. De Angelis, Elogio storico di Giacomo Pacchiarotti, Siena 1821, p. 66, XLI
M. Tamassia, Collezioni d’arte tra Ottocento e Novecento, Jacquier fotografi a Firenze 1870 - 1935, Naples 1995, pp. 78-79, 179
Girolamo di Giovanni del Pacchia was born in Siena in 1477 and many of his personal details were lost after his death, causing them to often be confused with those of the slightly older Giacomo Pacchiarotti. Thanks to the research of Gaetano Milanesi we can now correctly identify the artistic personality of the Sienese painter.
An initial close collaboration with Pacchiarotti was hypothesized by Fiorella Sricchia Santoro regarding Girolamo’s youthful activity. This would motivate the confusion that has persisted for so long between the two, despite Girolamo’s initial phase being characterized by an eccentric interpretation of models from Perugino. Sricchia Santoro also believes that a trip to Rome at young age, together with Pacchiarotti, is very probable. This information would be valuable to explain the supposed direct involvement of the two artists, alongside Pinturicchio, in the decoration of the vault of the Piccolomini library. The stylistic differences from the more conventional Pacchiarotti and from Pinturicchio himself, however, can already be seen in his first works: narrative ability and reference to the ancient blend with a marked sensitivity for chiaroscuro and with the propensity towards a soft and nuanced painting of Umbrian ancestry: characteristics that within a few years would have made Girolamo one of the most enthusiastic Sienese followers of Raffaello Sanzio.
A hint of blue sky is the only detail that gives spatial depth and breath to the scene, crossed by a certain atmosphere of jubilation. The Madonna, sitting frontally, has an iconic, serene and hypnotized face, traversed from the left by a light that degrades and shapes the volume. Her hands, which hold the Child full with happiness and represented in the act of blessing with his right hand, create a further movement in the robes, amplified by the contrast between the red and blue colours of the cloak. Behind the saints Joseph and Catherine, a discreet presence, frame the maternal scene.
The presence of the Sienese saint helps us identify our painting with the one mentioned by De Angelis and belonging to Canonico Mugnaini collection in 1821. The painting was then recorded with the Florentine art dealer Federico Pedulli in 1924 and then appear in the auction of the Achille de Clemente collection in New York in 1931.
In this work the artist paints with velvety and soft tones, typical of the central phase of his activity, when he softens his sharp and sophisticated trait, which still characterizes works such as the tondo preserved in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence. The Child has hair ruffled by a light breeze and a witty expression, which recalls that of the young Saint John in the Accademia.
The work can be dated to the second decade of the sixteenth century, close to the Madonna with Child which, paired with the Saint Bernardino, is preserved at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. As suggested by Claudio Gulli, similar to the two panels in Munich, ours could also be identified as a Cataletto head, a type of object that had considerable success in Siena, from the end of the fifteenth century until the middle of the seventeenth century. We don’t know much more about their function than what Vasari states about a cataletto painted by Sodoma: “he also painted for the Compagnia della Trinità a coffin to carry the deads to burial, which was beautiful”. And as if to reiterate the aesthetic value of panels affixed to the feet and head of a sedan chair for the deceased, the historian from Arezzo, when mentioning two cataletti by Beccafumi, insists on the point: “Nor should anyone be surprised that I make mention of such works because they are truly marvellously beautiful, as anyone who has seen them knows”.
The wooden structure of these artefacts has almost always been lost - unlike the heads, which can easily be reduced to gallery paintings as in our case, and sometimes sold for profit. It is a perfect example of recycling in art, from a public use for ceremony to that for private devotion.
The painting holds extraordinary significance not only for its execution technique but also for its conservation history. From a technical perspective, a remarkable underdrawing in the form of a pouncing technique (spolvero), which is more precise and accurate than the use of incised lines, has been revealed by the reflectography. The pouncing is clearly visible in the hands, the right arm and in the curls of the Child. A freehand intervention with black ink followed this type of underdrawing. The brushwork shows numerous pentimenti, such as in the Child’s elbow, the navel - initially planned higher - and in the hands and shoulder of the Madonna. The use of ultramarine glazes over a base of azurite in the blue mantle and vermilion in the red robe make the painting particularly valuable, both pigments were, in fact, extremely expensive at the time, suggesting a commission of high status.
A full fact sheet is available on request.
