Francesco Morandini, called Il Poppi

Galerie Brimo de Laroussilhe, Paris;
From whom acquired by Wildenstein in March 1939;
Private collection.

Paris, Wildenstein, L'École de Fontainbleau, December 1939, no. 2 (as attributed to Nicolò dell'Abate);
New York, Wildenstein, The School of Fontainbleau, 31 October - 30 November 1940 (as Niccolò dell'Abate and workshop);
London, Royal Academy, Landscape in French Art, 10 December - 5 March 1950, no. 13 (as Niccolò dell'Abate and assistants).

R. Huyghe, "L'École de Fontainbleau", in Beaux-Arts, 1 December 1939, p. 12, reproduced (as probably Nicolò dell'Abate);
A. Watt, "Notes from Paris", in Apollo , XXXI, no. 182, February 1940, p. 46 (as probably by Nicolò dell'Abate);
S. Béguin, L'École de Fontainbleau, Paris 1960, p. 140, footnote 49 (as probably Flemish School);
J. Bousquet, La Peinture Maniériste, Neuchâtel 1964, p. 182, reproduced (as School of Fontainbleau);
M. Valsecchi and R. Charmet, "Fontainbleau", in Le Arti, XXX, nos. 1-2, January - February 1973, p. 12, a detail reproduced fig. 2.

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. UNCONDITIONAL AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE Structural Condition The large panel has been cradled and this appears to be ensuring a sound structural support and has successfully secured a number of horizontal joins and splits in the panel. Paint Surface The paint surface has a very thick and glossy varnish layer and inspection under ultra-violet light confirms how discoloured the varnish layers have become. I would expect to find retouchings beneath these old varnish layers which are not identifiable under ultra-violet light. The most significant retouchings that are visible under ultra-violet light cover horizontal joins in the large panel with other repaired panel splits. The most significant of these lines are approximately 23 and 45 cm above the lower horizontal framing edge. There are also retouchings in the lower right of the composition in the dark shadows, small scattered areas of inpainting on the figures and in the dark background. The contours of the figures have been strengthened and it would appear that a number of retouchings have been applied to the sky and the water but these fluoresce very feintly and are difficult to quantify. The leaves and bullrushes have been strengthened as has the water spilling from the upturned water vessels in the lower left of the composition. The outlines of the vessels themselves have also been strengthened. There would appear to be a large area of retouching measuring approximately 23 x 10 cm just above the seated male figure in the lower left of the composition. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in stable condition with quite extensive retouching applied in different stages beneath the very discoloured varnish layers.
"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."

Although long thought to be the work of Nicolò dell'Abate or one of his many followers at Fontainbleau in France in the second half of the sixteenth century, it was the late Edmund Pillsbury who first recognised this rare mannerist landscape as the work of the Florentine Francesco Morandini called il Poppi.¹  Poppi was trained in Florence in the studio of Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) and participated in the latter's team working in the 1570s on the decoration of the Studiolo of Francesco I de' Medici in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Although influenced to some degree by Vasari, Poppi's work more closely reflected that of his colleague (and rival) Giovanni Battista Naldini, and was clearly also influenced by the work of Pontormo and Parmigianino. His innovative and colourful style mark him out as one of the more progressive artists then working in Florence.

Although a landscape such as this is not otherwise known in Poppi's extant oeuvre, it nevertheless has numerous parallels with his surviving works. In terms of subject it is best compared to his delicate panel of The Golden Age which may be the picture of around 1567-70 recorded by his earliest biographer Raffaello Borghini as painted for Francesco de' Medici, and in which numerous elegant nude figures representing the first of the Four Ages of the World disport in a verdant landscape.²  Closer parallels are however afforded by slightly later works from the 1570s. The female figures to the right of the composition, with their distinctive high-browed physiognomies, are echoed in his signed Bronze Foundry of 1572, painted for the Studiolo. These recur again in the House of the Sun in the Casa Vasari in Arezzo, in which similar reclining figures are arranged in the foreground picture plane.³  Similar repoussoir figures to those on the left of the composition are also to be found in his Sacrifice of Abel in the Church of Santa Croce in Boscomarengo and in a drawing of The Baptism of Constantine, a study for one of two paintings depicting the Baptism of Prince Filippo de' Medici datable to1577 and today in a private collection.⁴  The subject of this rare landscape has not been identified. The combination of the male figure on the left carrying a mill wheel with the female figures to the right who bear precious gilt vessels suggest that it may have been conceived as an allegory of, or tribute to, the River Arno, the river so vital to the economic prosperity of the city of Florence.

1.  Written communication to the present owner, 5 March 1969.
2.  Inv. no. 268; panel, 43 by 31.8 cm. H. Brigstocke, Italian and Spanish paintings in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh 1978, p. 103.
3.  A. Giovannetti, Francesco Morandini detto il Poppi, Florence 1995, pp. 83-4 and 87, cat. nos. 9 and 15, reproduced figs. 23 and 29.
4.  Giovannetti, op. cit., pp. 78-9, 213, nos. 4 and D12.