Formerly London, Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., 1968, from the Kenneth Clark Collection.

Panel, 73.7 x 53.3.

Fig.RP.13

PROVENANCE: London, Harris Collection.  London, Thomas Harris, 1939 (see Ragghianti, below).  Sir Kenneth Clark.  London, Sale, Sotheby’s, April 19, 1967, lot 37, as Rosso.  London, Julius Weitzner.

LITERATURE:

See “Upper Terrace House, Hempstead,” Art et Style, 7, 1947, 43-51, the picture appears in the background of one of the photographs of the interior.

F.G. Grossmann, in Between Renaissance and Baroque, 1965, 64, no. 201, Pl. II, as Rosso, and in the collection of Sir Kenneth Clark.

Benedict Nicolson, “Editorial, The Concept of Mannerism” BM, 107, 1965, 172, as Rosso.

“Mostre d’arte italiane,” Sele Arte, XIII, 74, April-June, 1965, 32, 33, Fig. 45, as Rosso.

Béguin, 1966, 58, as closer to Pontormo.

Old Masters: Recent Acquisitions, Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, March 12 – April 10, 1968, 5, no. 4, as Rosso.

Benedict Nicolson, BM, 110, 1968, 228 (review of Agnew exh.), as a disappointment.

Ragghianti, 1972, 64-65, n. 15, as attributed to Pontormo when owned by Thomas Harris, London, in 1939, but by Rosso.

Wright, 1976, 233, Pl. 13, as Rosso.

Costamagna, 1994, 166, Cat. 39.3, formerly with Julius Weitzner, London, as a mediocre copy of Pontormo’s painting in the Hester Diamond Collection, New York.

 

There are several versions and variants of this composition.

Ragghianti (see above), gives:

Bologna, private collection, probably from the Duca di Lucca Collection, panel, 98 x 72, as an autograph version by Rosso (see also Costamagna, 1994, 166, Cat. 39.1)

Capannoli, near Pisa, Villa Gotti Lega, repainted.

Ragghianti notes there are several versions, some reversed, but it is not clear if the latter is reversed.

Costamagna, 1994, 166, Cat. 39.2, also lists a version of high quality in a private collection in Florence (oil on panel, 77 x 58.5), the figures against a green curtain; Costamagna thinks an attribution to Jacone is the most probable.

There are also other versions, brought to my attention by Janet Cox-Rearick:

Private Collection, Luciano Berti, Quaderni Pontormeschi, 2. Fortuna del Pontormo, Empoli, 1956-1957, 23, n. 4, Pl. 3, as by Jacone?

Mexico City, Galleria S. Carlos, attributed to Pontormo (formerly Florence, Private Collection, Soprintendenza photograph 11157).  In this version the Madonna is shown nursing the Child.  Luisa Becherucci, “Un dipinto del Pontormo,” Arte in Europa: Scritti in Onore di E. Arslan, 1966, 505-510, Fig. 339, as Pontormo.

The attribution of this picture to Rosso has, apparently, not survived, and rightly so.  Stylistically the painting very much resembles the Holy Family in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, that Philip Pouncey attributed to Maso da San Friano (Luciano Berti, “Nota a Maso da San Friano,” Scritti di storia dell’arte in onore di Mario Salmi, Rome, 1963, III, 87, Fig. 11, 88.  Freedberg, 1971, 321, Fig. 199, as around 1570).  Recently, however, the image, in several of its versions, has been given to Pontormo.  It is certainly Pontormesque, but that any version is actually by him is doubtful.  The painting, formerly in Kenneth Clark’s collection, has a style that is slightly different from the styles of the other versions and one that continues to suggest to me Pouncey’s attribution to Maso da San Friano.  It also seems to me more a fine variation than Costamagna’s mediocre copy of the Pontormesque picture in the Hester Diamond Collection in New York.