FG FINE ART LTD
Johannes Hispanus
Macerata, documented from 1508 to 1528
This panel was first exhibited in London as Pinturicchio when it was part of the Cornwalis-West collection in 1891 and in 1893, and once more in 1910. By 1930, it was still recorded in the London collection, as noted by Van Marle. A 1959 inscription on the verso of a photograph housed in the Berenson Photographic Archive indicates its provenance from the Rush collection in Washington.
On October 2, 1970, the painting was sold at a New York as a work by Antonio da Viterbo, known as Il Pastura. It was later acquired by Finch College. After passing through another Sotheby’s auction in New York on January 2, 2004, lot 55, it was recorded as part of a private collection in Florence.
Madonna and Child with two angels
Oil on panel, 50.8 x 38 cm
Provenance
Acquired by Frederick Richard West, possibly in Italy
London, colonel W. Cornwallis West, M.P., by 1891
London, Christie’s, 11 July 1919, lot 62 to Renton for £152–5s. Washington, Dr and Mrs R.H. Rush, by 1959
New York, Finch College Museum of Art
New York, Parke-Bernet Galleries, 22 October 1970, lot 7
New York, Sotheby’s, 22 January 2004, lot 55
Florence, Moretti Fine Art
Netherland, private collection
Exhibitions
London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of works by the old masters [...], 5 January - 14 March 1891
London, The New Gallery, Exhibition of Early Italian Art from 1300 to 1550, 1893-94
London, The Burlington Fine Arts Club, Pictures of the Umbrian School, 1910
Rovigo, Palazzo Roverella, Le Meraviglie della pittura tra Venezia e Ferrara. Da Bellini a Dosso a Tiepolo, 22 January - 4 June 2006, no. 23
Bibliography
Exhibition of works by the old masters [...], London 1891, p. 34, no. 146
Exhibition of Early Italian Art from 1300 to 1550, London 1893, p. 24, no. 126
Catalogue of a Collection of Pictures of the Umbrian School, London 1910, p. 43, no. 55
R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 1923-38, vol. XIV, p. 293, note 1
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School, London 1957, vol. I, p. 194
L. Puppi, Francesco Verla, Rome 1960, p. 277
L. Puppi, Francesco Verla, Pittore, Trento 1967, pp. 48, 60
F. Todini, La Pittura Umbra, Milan 1989, vol. I, p. 307, vol. II, p. 522, no. 1203
M. Tanzi, ‘Siparietti cremonesi’, in "Prospettiva", 113-14, January-April 2004, p. 156, note 15
F. Todini, Il Perugino, le sue botteghe e i suoi seguaci. “Volendo fare di sua mano, lui è il meglio maestro d’Italia.”, in Perugino a Firenze, exhibition catalogue, Florence 2005, p. 62
C. Agostini, in Le Meraviglie della pittura tra Venezia e Ferrara, Cinisello Balsamo 2005, pp. 84-85, no. 23
M. Tanzi, Aggiornamenti per Filippo da Verona, in “Verona illustrata”, 19, Verona 2006, pp. 105-6, note 3
S. Castellana, Johannes Hispanus, Naples 2017, p. 115, no. 1
Regarding attribution, the earliest known reference identifies it as by Bernardino di Betto, called Pinturicchio. Van Marle included the painting among works “which reflect the art of Pinturicchio”. Later, it was attributed to Francesco Verla by Berenson, and subsequently published with the same attribution by Puppi.
The painting is identified as a work by Antonio da Viterbo in the reproduction preserved at Villa I Tatti. Todini[included it in the catalogue of Rocco Zoppo, who is recognized as the master of the Finch Madonna, under the attribution first established during a Sotheby’s auction in New York on January 2, 2004. Tanzi, in agreement with Everett Fahy and Andrea De Marchi, assigns the work to Johannes Hispanus. However, Todini challenges this attribution, reiterating the reference to Rocco Zoppo and dismissing the “superficial typological similarities” that led to the “incongruent” identification of the Spanish artist. Agostini attributes the work to “a close pupil of Perugino during the years of his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel”, recognizing Johannes Hispanus in line with Fahy and De Marchi. The catalogue entry references the artist’s activity and posits that his training likely took place in Florence under Perugino in the 1490s.
Tanzi in 2006 reaffirms the attribution to the Spanish artist. Agostini provides an analysis of the composition, noting the two angels on the left reading a musical score, and the dynamic movement of the Child, whose crossed legs, a pose typical of Verrocchio, are also found in Perugino’s works, such as the Saint Jerome from the Galitzin triptych (Washington, National Gallery), dated around 1480. The monograph on Johannes Hispanus by Castellana accounting all the historical attribution finally attributed the painting to the small catalogue of the artist.
These studies, have clarified the biographical contours of this mysterious artist, who was long resident in Macerata (from 1508 to 1528), and can perhaps be identified with a “magistero Zovano spagnolo” present in Mantua in 1497. In the two altarpieces of Viadana and Montecassiano the Spanish master seems to have been strongly influenced by Lombard perspective painting and by the crystalline atmospheres of Boccaccio Boccaccino, though with somewhat eccentric results. Thanks to the two tondi already published by Zeri (Poppi, Palazzo Comunale; and formerly Rome, Chigi collection), and more especially thanks to the earlier Stories of Achilles and the Finch Madonna, it is possible, however, to argue that Johannes Hispanus must also have spent a period of apprenticeship in Florence in c.1490, in Perugino’s own shop.
The Madonna’s, holding an apple, with the Child seated on her lap, facing two angels, one of whom unrolls a scroll, is in a slightly off-center positioning, with a complementary landscape background which reflects a distinctive Florentine tradition, one that starts from Filippo Lippi to Biagio d’Antonio and culminates in Botticelli and, albeit in a different style, Perugino. The architectural details in the background also recall the works of Ghirlandaio and Lorenzo di Credi. The dating of this painting must consider Johannes Hispanus’s likely stay in Rome around 1492, a period that aligns closely with the work’s creation.
This painting probably represents, as the Madonna and Child in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, attributed to Andrea d’Assisi, called L’Ingegno, a variant of as-yet-untraced prototype, likely attributed to Pinturicchio during his Roman period.
A full fact sheet is available on request.