Attributed to Andrea Solario

Raphael Thibault (according to an old label on the reverse);
From whom passed to Hélène Hureault, née Lecesne, Chateauroux (according to an old label on the reverse).

Picture is on a single piece of wood which is stable, uncradled, and beveled on at least three sides. Picture has a somewhat uneven varnish which could be freshened up, but is in generally quite healthy state. There are a couple of small retouches visible under uv including a repaired scratch to the paint in the white portion of the Madonna's hood. A few other tiny retouches in the hands but these are cosmetic. In a carved and painted gilt wood frame.
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This emotive depiction of the Mater Dolorosa is almost identical to a larger version, formerly in a private collection, Zurich, that has traditionally been considered the prime composition after which various copies and versions derive.¹ In this painting, of exquisite quality, the delicate layers of glaze that mold the flesh tones and the lustrous tears visible in the copies have been preserved, in contrast to the ex-Zurich panel whose surface was abraded due to an aggressive cleaning campaign.  Both this and the ex-Zurich panel would once have formed half of a diptych, reminiscent of Flemish models, with an adjacent wing bearing a representation of Ecce Homo.  In both cases, however, the accompanying Christ figure has since been separated and their whereabouts are now unknown.  

In 1899, Gustavo Frizzoni noted a corresponding Mater Dolorosa and Ecce Homo pair, again of smaller dimensions, in the Galleria Borghese, Rome (inv. nos. 280 and 286), signed by the French copyist Simon de Mailly, called Simon de Châlons.²  In her 1959 catalogue of the Galleria Borghese paintings, Paola Della Pergola questioned whether the ex-Zurich and Mailly pictures were in fact both versions after another painting.³  David Alan Brown expands on the hypothesis in his monograph entry, noting that the majority of known copies correspond in dimension to the Mailly paintings rather than to the larger ex-Zurich painting.⁴  Brown proposes the possibility of another, smaller, autograph pair, since lost, after which the others might have been copied.⁵   Given the corresponding dimensions of the present work with those of the Mailly pair and other diminutive copies, it is tempting to believe that this might indeed be the lost work from which the others are derived.

1.  D.A. Brown, Andrea Solario, Milan 1987, pp. 211 – 212, reproduced p. 182, fig. 143.
2.  G. Frizzoni, “Rassegna d’insigni artisti italiani a ricordo dell’incremento dato ai Musei di Milano dal Direttore Giuseppe Bertini” in L’Arte, vol. II, 1899, p. 154; for reproductions see D.A. Brown, op. cit. p. 183, figs. 144 and 145; the Mater Dolorosa and Ecce Homo measure 12 ½  by 8 5/8 in.; 31.5 by 22.5 cm. and 13 ¼  by 8 5/8  in.; 33.5 by 22.5 cm. respectively and the Madonna is inscribed on the reverse:  SYMON DE [CHA]LONS EN CHĀPEINE MA PEIN, 1543.
3.  P. Della Pergola, Galleria Borghese, I Dipinti, Rome 1959, vol. II, p. 173.
4.  D.A. Brown, op. cit., p. 212, under cat. no. 48.
5.  Ibid.