Follower Of Andrea Del Sarto (florence, 1486 - 1530) Madonna With Child And St. John

Follower of Andrea del Sarto (Florence, 16 July 1486 - Florence, 29 September 1530)

Madonna with Child, San Giovannino and two Angels

Oil on panel, cm 73 x 61.5

With frame cm 100 x 90

Francesco Bocchi in his Discorso sopra l'Eccellenza dell'Opera di Andrea del Sarto Pittore Fiorentino, published in 1567, one year before the second and celebrated edition of the Vasarian Lives, He was already said a convinced admirer of Andrea del Sarto and made praise for him in abundance. In the last two decades of the sixteenth century, the artist was copied and unsurpassed model, so that two unusual behaviors were determined by his admirers. On the one hand there were those who boasted extreme honor in putting hands to work initiated by the master, as did Alessandro Allori when he had the opportunity to approach his Tribute to Caesar of the Medici villa of Poggio a Caiano. On the other hand, the race for the appropriation of originals by Andrea del Sarto played a very stimulating role, most often causing the production of necessary copies that would replace the void left by the taking possession of the collectors. Autographs of the artist were much requested by the Medici; a case on all: the altarpiece of Sant'Ambrogio painted for the Company of Santa Maria della Neve in borgo la Croce, next to the church of S. Ambrogio. The original painting was requested by Cardinal Carlo de'Medici, and it was necessary a copy of the canvas from Jacopo de Empoli so that the Company did not remain in the scarno.

The present painting reproposes the Virgin with Child, San Giovannino and two angels whose original is now kept at the Wallace Collection in London. It was a canvas so much appreciated that the same Andrea del Sarto proposed in several versions.