{"id":2107,"date":"2011-11-23T14:44:54","date_gmt":"2011-11-23T18:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/rosso\/"},"modified":"2014-04-22T16:42:12","modified_gmt":"2014-04-22T20:42:12","slug":"d4-altarpiece","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/drawings\/d4-altarpiece\/","title":{"rendered":"D.4 Study for an Altarpiece"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

D.4. Study for an Altarpiece<\/p><\/div>\n

With an Enthroned Madonna and Child, St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph(?), St. Margaret, and St. Sebastian(?).<\/strong><\/p>\n

c. 1519<\/p>\n

Florence, Uffizi, no. 479F.<\/p>\n

Fig.D.4<\/a><\/p>\n

Black chalk, 33 x 25.5; mat paper, irregularly torn along the right edge; somewhat rubbed, and soiled; laid down; wm.?.\u00a0 Inscribed in the upper right corner: 479<\/em>, and in the lower left corner: 614<\/em> and 52<\/em>.<\/p>\n

LITERATURE:<\/p>\n

According to Weigel, 1865, 656, no. 7731, reproduced by Stefano Mulinari as a red chalk drawing by Rosso in Istoria pratica dell’incominciamento, e progressi delta pittura, o sia raccolta di cinquanta stampe, estratte da uqual numero di disegni originali esistenti nella Real Galleria di Firenze per la prima volta incise da Stefano Mulinari<\/em>, Florence, 1778, fol. no. 34 (impressions of this print are in Paris, Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale, Vol. Ba 12, 38.2 x 28.6 Sheet, including margins on all sides, and in Florence, Uffizi, stampe in volumni, no. 2800, in a volume entitled: Cominciamento e progresso della pittura dal secolo X. dell’era di Cristo Nostro Signore al secolo presente MDCCLXXXVII.<\/em>; in the margin at the upper right: 48<\/em>, in the margin at the lower right: SM. inci.<\/em>, and below: Di Rosso Fiorentino, nato nel 1496, visse anni 55.<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Ferri, 1890, 125, as Rosso, and as a study for the Dei Altarpiece.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jacobsen, 1898, 274, no. 104, as by Rosso, and as very probably for the Dei Altarpiece.<\/p>\n

Berenson, 1903, I, 330, II, no. 2397, as Rosso, and perhaps an early study for the Dei Altarpiece.<\/p>\n

Kusenberg, 1931, 137, 139, no. 6, as Rosso around 1527-1530.<\/p>\n

Berenson, 1938, I, 323, II, no. 2402A, III, Fig. 995, as in 1903.<\/p>\n

Mostra del Cinquecento<\/em>, 1940, 105, no. 3-C, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Tr<\/em>\u00e9sors des Biblioth\u00e8ques d’Italie, IVe<\/sup> – XVIe<\/sup> si\u00e8cles<\/em>, Paris, 1950, no. 426, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Barocchi, 1950, 130, 158, 210, 213, Fig. 188, as Rosso around 1527-1530.<\/p>\n

Hartt, 1952, 65, as Rosso, and done before 1523.<\/p>\n

Bologna and Causa, 1952, 60, as Rosso (and wrongly as Uffizi 469E).<\/p>\n

Luisa Marcucci, in Mostra di disegni<\/em>, 1954, 22, no. 30, as Rosso and a study for the Dei Altarpiece.<\/p>\n

Sinibaldi, 1960, 17, no. 87, as Rosso and almost certainly a study for the Dei Altarpiece.<\/p>\n

Berenson, 1961, I, 471, II, no. 2402A.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1964 (1976), I, Bk. I, 51-64, 70-72, 76-77, 80, 88, Bk. II, 205-212, D.8, III, Bk. III, Fig. 18, as Rosso, ca. 1519.<\/p>\n

Petrioli Tofani, 1972, no. 48, and Color Pl.<\/p>\n

Forlani Tempesti, in Primato del disegno<\/em>, 1980, 193, no. 457, and Fig., as Rosso, c. 1520-1522.<\/p>\n

Darragon, 1983, 37-38, Fig. 13, as influenced by Pontormo\u2019s Pucci Altarpiece.<\/p>\n

Wilmes, 1985, 126-127, 138, Fig. 21, as possibly a study for the Dei Altarpiece.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1987, 18, Fig. 1, 19, as Rosso, c. 1519.<\/p>\n

Ciardi, 1987, agreed with my dating of the drawing.<\/p>\n

Smith, in Petrioli Tofani and Smith, 1988, 53, 54, Color. Pl., 55, no. 23, as Rosso, as about 1521-1524, or 1522-23, if related to the plague in Florence at that time, or later, even as late as the post-Roman period.<\/p>\n

Ciardi and Mugnaini, 1991, 62, 90, 92, as related to the Dei Altarpiece.<\/p>\n

Florence, Figura<\/em>, 1, 1991, 479F, with Fig. and bibliography, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Franklin, 1994, 72, Pl. 53, 73, 83, as influenced by Pontormo\u2019s Visdomini Altarpiece of 1518, and roughly contemporary with the altarpieces in Volterra; also as showing the Baptist sharing the Virgin’s throne.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The traditional attribution of this drawing to Rosso has rightly never been questioned.\u00a0 Compositionally and in detail, the drawing is clearly related to the S. Maria Nuova Altarpiece of 1518 (Fig.P.5a<\/a>), to the Volterra Deposition<\/em> (Fig.P.9a<\/a>) and the Villamagna Altarpiece (Fig.P.10a<\/a>) of 1521, and to the Dei Altarpiece of 1522 (Fig.P.12a<\/a>). Graphically, it is very similar to the Virt\u00f9 Vanquishing Fortune<\/em> of 1521-1522 (Fig.D.6a<\/a>), the Seated Woman in a Niche<\/em> of 1524 (Fig.D.11<\/a>), and the St. Roch Distributing His Inheritance to the Poor<\/em> of the same year (Fig.D.13<\/a>), to name only a few of the many comparable drawings.\u00a0 The draughtsmanship of the Study for an Altarpiece<\/em> differs from that of these drawings only by being somewhat more dense in the shadows and slightly less incisive in the delineation of details.\u00a0 In spite of the fact that it is executed in gray chalk it also brings to mind Rosso\u2019s Throne of Solomon<\/em> of 1529 (Fig.D.34<\/a>), executed in pen and ink and wash, although this drawing is clearly a later invention.<\/p>\n

The frequent dating of the drawing between 1527 and 1530 is not acceptable because it shows no reflection of Rosso\u2019s stay in Rome in the immediately preceding years or any significant stylistic correspondence with his post-Roman Italian works.\u00a0 The figure of St. Margaret may show some knowledge of the Libyan Sibyl but the saint gives no impression of a direct confrontation with the Sistine Ceiling.\u00a0 On iconographical grounds it can be shown that the drawing is not a study for the Dei Altarpiece.\u00a0 Two of the saints in Rosso\u2019s drawing are St. John the Baptist and St. Margaret.\u00a0 The old bearded saint is probably St. Joseph, and the second young and almost nude saint would seem to be St. Sebastian although no arrows are shown.\u00a0 We know from Vasari that Rosso\u2019s altarpiece of 1522 was commissioned by the Dei family as a substitute for the painting that Raphael had begun and left unfinished when he departed for Rome in 1508.\u00a0 As Riedl, 1959, 223-246, has shown, Raphael\u2019s early design at Chatsworth for his Madonna del Baldacchino<\/em> shows Sts. Peter, Bernard, Augustine, and probably Anthony.\u00a0 In Raphael\u2019s painting St. Anthony was replaced by St. James (or Jacob) the Elder.\u00a0 For the selection of two of these saints sound iconographical reasons can be given.\u00a0 The altarpiece, commissioned by the will of Rinieri di Bernardo Dei, was dedicated to St. Bernard.\u00a0 The church in which the altarpiece was to be placed – Santo Spirito – is an Augustinian church.\u00a0 Hence, Sts. Bernard and Augustine appear in Raphael\u2019s picture.\u00a0 Rosso\u2019s picture was planned for the same location and both of these saints appear in his painting.\u00a0 But neither appears in the Study for an Altarpiece<\/em>.\u00a0 Nor, if the two saints at the right in the drawing are correctly identified above, do any of the other saints in Raphael\u2019s drawing and painting appear in Rosso\u2019s study.\u00a0 And yet all of them possibly appear in Rosso\u2019s painting.\u00a0 The female saint in the altarpiece does not have nor ever had the attributes of St. Margaret. It is, however, the absence of St. Bernard, who is dramatically as well as inconographically so important to Rosso\u2019s painting, that makes it most unlikely that the drawing is a study for that altarpiece.<\/p>\n

Given the high placement of the Virgin and the saints beside her, the appearance of St. Sebastian at the right, and the situation of a kneeling female saint in the foreground, it is easy to see why this drawing has been associated with the Dei Altarpiece.\u00a0 But in spite of these similarities the Study for an Altarpiece <\/em>is surely an earlier work.\u00a0 The tall, slender, and tightly muscular figures of Sts. John and Sebastian are quite different from the broad and more fleshy nude St. Sebastian in the Dei Altarpiece.\u00a0 But they are quite specifically like the figures in the S. Maria Nuova Altarpiece of 1518, in the Volterra Deposition<\/em> of 1521, and in the Villamagna Altarpiece of the same year.\u00a0 The Madonna, with her long, oval face, long, pointed fingers, and simply folded draperies, is extremely similar to the Virgin in the latter picture.\u00a0 The hair of St. Sebastian is twisted almost exactly as is the beard of the man above the cross in the Deposition<\/em>.\u00a0 Even more specifically, the faceted draperies in the drawing are more similar to those in Rosso\u2019s paintings of 1518 and 1521 than to those in any earlier or later works by this artist.<\/p>\n

The very shallow space in the drawing also characterizes Rosso\u2019s pictures of 1518 and 1521.\u00a0 Furthermore, the manner in which the figures are arranged in the immediate foreground of this space and in broad, interrelated patterns across the surface of the drawing parallels the basic compositional principles of the S. Maria Nuova Altarpiece and even slightly more those in the Volterra Deposition<\/em>.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the absolute clarity with which these stylistic principles are realized in the Volterra Deposition <\/em>and in the Villamagna Altarpiece is missing from the drawing.\u00a0 The posture of St. Margaret, for example, is not thoroughly considered, especially the existence of the right leg under all the drapery that covers it.\u00a0 Her drapery also lacks the crisp definition of that in the Volterra Deposition<\/em>.\u00a0 The whole composition of the drawing lacks the rhythmic continuity of the designs of the Volterra and Villamagna paintings.<\/p>\n

Within the context of the development of Rosso\u2019s art the Study for an Altarpiece<\/em> can be seen as a step in the alteration of Rosso\u2019s style from the altarpiece of 1518 to the more mature paintings of 1521, an alteration certainly stimulated and determined by the example of Pontormo\u2019s art.\u00a0 The changes that distinguish the style of the drawing from Rosso\u2019s altarpiece of 1518 are probably accountable to the influence of Pontormo\u2019s S. Michele Visdomini Altarpiece of 1518 (Fig.Pontormo, Visdomini<\/a>).\u00a0 As in this altarpiece, Rosso\u2019s Madonna is placed high in the composition and so seated that her legs are seen turned to the right while her left arm moves across her body to the left.\u00a0 The Christ Child in Rosso\u2019s drawing is in type, proportion, and posture extremely similar to the winged putto in the upper right corner of Pontormo\u2019s picture.\u00a0 Also, as in Pontormo\u2019s picture, the figures in Rosso\u2019s drawing are extended across the surface of the composition in such a way that all the figures are almost fully visible.\u00a0 Furthermore, the light in Rosso\u2019s drawing brightly illuminates parts of the figures while it casts other parts suddenly into shadow.\u00a0 Consequently, Rosso\u2019s drawing would appear to have been done after Pontormo\u2019s picture of 1518.<\/p>\n

But the drawing is also related to Rosso\u2019s own altarpiece of that year and is not yet as Pontormesque as his paintings of 1521.\u00a0 Nor is it as Pontormesque as his Standing Nude Woman<\/em> in the Uffizi (Fig.D.5<\/a>) or his Portrait of a Young Man<\/em> in Washington (Fig.P.8a<\/a>), both of which seem to have been done around 1520.\u00a0 The Study for an Altarpiece<\/em> would seem to have been executed around 1519, shortly after the St. Paul the Hermit<\/em> (Fig.D.3<\/a>), and about the same time as the small painting of the Holy Family<\/em> in Baltimore (Fig.P.7a<\/a>). That some aspects of the drawing were utilized three years later when Rosso painted the Dei Altarpiece is not particularly unusual considering the frequent recurrence of motifs in Rosso\u2019s art throughout his career.<\/p>\n

Graham Smith had partly supported his dating of 1521-1524 on the basis of a possible relationship, suggested by Linda Wolk, of the appearance of St. Sebastaian in the drawing and an outbreak of the plague in Florence in 1522. Smith also pointed out that principal sites of the cult of this saint in Florence were the Pucci Chapel at SS. Annunziata and the ancient Compagnia di San Sebastiano behind the Annunziata.\u00a0 This confraternity was reconsecrecated in 1516 (see Janet Cox-Rearick, \u201cA St. Sebastian by Bronzino,\u201d BM<\/em>, CXXIX, 1987, 160-161, and p.162, n. 22, citing F. del Migliore, Firenze citt\u00e0 nobilissima<\/em>, Florence, 1684, 303-304).\u00a0 As Rosso had earlier and several times worked for this church where one of his brothers was a cleric and Fra’ Jacopo was very much a mentor, it is possible that the artist was called upon to paint an altarpiece for the Compagnia di San Sebastiano, or thought he might, following its reconsecration.\u00a0 This could account for the making of the drawing without the stimulus of an outbreak of the plague itself, especially as the saint is shown not pierced by arrows, not unlikely an essential detail to suggest the plague. Instead the implication may be in his rushing into the scene of a saintly protector of any threat to the members of this confraternity.<\/p>\n

A connection to SS. Annunziata may also be indicated by the appearance of St. Margaret of Antioch who is also in Piero di Cosimo’s Incarnation with Six Saints<\/em> painted around 1504 for the Tedaldi Chapel in this church. She is \u00a0paired with St. Catherine of Alexandria, a patron of the Domincan Order who was also revered by the Servites through their devotion to St. Peter Martyr who aided them. Why St. Margaret has been chosen for these compositions is not definitely known, but it is likely that her identity as an early virgin martyr, as was St. Catherine of Alexandria, finds its place in the worship of the Virgin Mary (see Geronimus, 2006, 2o7-211, including Fig.160 of a drawing for the altarpiece that shows the two Virgin Saints nearer to the Virgin. St. Margaret is also shown with St. Sebastian in Giovanni Cariani’s painting,\u00a0Three Saints,\u00a0<\/em>in the Mus\u00e9e des Beaux-Arts in Marseilles (Fig.Cariani<\/a>). With the third saint St. Roch the picture is surely related to the plague. But as the original site of Cariani’s picture is not known and it is thus also not possible to say that it was painted for a specific outbreak of the disease. See Ridolfo Palluchini, Giovanni Cariani<\/em>, Bergamo, 1983, 48, 59, Fig. 69, 126, no. 48. Cariani’s St. Sebastiano is inflicted with only one arrow, just above his knee, not so serious a serious wound to threatened his life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With an Enthroned Madonna and Child, St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph(?), St. Margaret, and St. Sebastian(?). c. 1519 Florence, Uffizi, no. 479F. Fig.D.4 Black chalk, 33 x 25.5; mat paper, irregularly torn along the right edge; somewhat rubbed, and soiled; laid down; wm.?.\u00a0 Inscribed in the upper right corner: 479, and in the lower […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":820,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2107","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2107"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10576,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2107\/revisions\/10576"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}