Alessandro Allori Florence 1535 - 1607

Frederick, 2nd Baron Hesketh (1916-1955);
Thence by family descent.

S. Lecchini Giovannoni, in Il Seicento, 1987, vol. III, p. 29 (as dated 1576);
S. Lecchini Giovannoni, Alessandro Allori, Turin 1991, p. 232, cat. no. 39, reproduced fig. 75 (erroneously described as on panel and as dated 1572).

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a copper plate which appears to have a fine linen backing supported by a panel, and this has protected the copper from dents or bent corners. A minute characteristic copper crackle is markedly raised in the dark madder of the shadows in the Madonna's drapery with some little lost flakes. This has also affected the darker details of the heads of Joseph and the infant St. John, with Joseph's drapery fairly heavily crackled by the right edge. There are layers of yellowed old varnish, but the only signs of past intervention seem to be a few tiny darkened retouchings in the forehead, cheek and chin of St.John, some probable retouching at the central right edge in Joseph's drapery, and some apparently superficial old cosmetic touches on each side of the Madonna, by the outline of her left shoulder and on her right in the central column. Some tiny old flakes in the middle of her drapery are broken and dirtied, and may have once been consolidated. The condition elsewhere throughout is remarkably intact. The transitions in the glazed modelling of the Christ Child for example are perfectly unworn, the landscape also looks finely preserved as does the beautiful detail of the sarcophagus, as well as the main figures. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The painting is signed 'AD AL FL^.F' - A[lessan]d[ro] Al[lori] Fl[orentinae] F[ecit] - and dated 'MDL XXVI' (1576). The composition derives from a drawing in the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, which has traditionally been attributed to Bronzino and has been linked to the painting of The Holy Family - more commonly known as 'The Panciatichi Madonna' after its patron Bartolomeo Panciatichi - in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.¹  A comparison between the two works, however, demonstrates that the drawing cannot be considered preparatory for the Uffizi painting and this is indeed the opinion of both Anna Maria Petrioli Tofani and Smyth (the latter more recently confirming Bronzino's authorship of the sheet).  In any event, the Munich sheet cannot be attributed to Allori for stylistic reasons and Lecchini Giovannoni believes the drawing was produced some time earlier, perhaps copying a lost Bronzino design which may also have served as inspiration for Allori's little painting.²  The overall composition of the drawing is the same as that in this copper, with most details faithfully reproduced: the bas-relief, for example, is almost exactly replicated, and the position of the figures is the same, the Madonna's profile in particular, which is re-elaborated in the upper part of the sheet.  The notable difference between the two works is the figure of the Madonna; in the painting she is shown dressed but in the drawing her upper torso, stomach and thighs are exposed (the reason for her semi-nudity being presumably to gain a better understanding of her anatomy). The landscape at the left of the painting's composition is entirely characteristic of Allori and is indeed his own invention.

This small-scale copper demonstrates Allori's extraordinary ability to paint varying textures: the exquisite detail of the Madonna's hair and the cushion on which the sleeping Christ rests his head contrasts with the more confident abbreviated brushstrokes used for the stone bas-relief in the foreground. The painting has much in common with Allori's panel of The Baptism of Christ in the Národní Galerie, Prague,  which is signed more fully and dated 1570.³

1  Inv. no. 2249, pen and brown ink, 250 by 161 mm.; reproduced in A. Schmitt, in Italienische Zeichnungen 15.-18. Jahrhundert, exhibition catalogue, Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, 4 May - 6 August 1967, p. 54, cat. no. 16, reproduced plate 24.
2  See Lecchini Giovannoni, under Literature, p. 232.
3  Lecchini Giovannoni, op. cit., p. 226, cat. no. 26, reproduced fig. 53.