{"id":811,"date":"2011-06-09T09:47:45","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T13:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/rosso2\/"},"modified":"2015-08-04T16:21:08","modified_gmt":"2015-08-04T20:21:08","slug":"p-3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/paintings\/p-3\/","title":{"rendered":"P.3 Assumption of the Virgin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

P.3 Assumption of the Virgin<\/p><\/div>\n

1513\u20131514<\/p>\n

Florence, SS. Annunziata.<\/p>\n

Fresco, 395 x 385.1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Fig.P.3a<\/a> restored
Fig.P.3b<\/a> bw, restored
Fig.P.3c<\/a> James
Fig.P.3d<\/a>\u00a0before detachment
Fig.P.3e<\/a> top half before detachment
Fig.P.3f<\/a> as viewed at floor level
Fig.P.3g<\/a> book<\/p>\n

The height of the fresco should be measured from just below the tip of the drapery that illusionistically falls outside the space of the picture. Three bands of molding were added by Rosso to raise the lower edge of the scene so that this illusion could be incorporated into the fresco without breaking the lower limit common to all the frescoes in the atrium of SS. Annunziata. These three moldings were not removed with the fresco when it was detached in April 1957 by Dino Dini (not 1958 as Lapucci states; see Baldini and Berti, 1957, 23\u201324) thereby significantly lessening the intended illusionistic effect of the fresco as now seen reattached to the wall. On the frequent earlier restorations of the frescoes in the atrium of SS. Annunziata, see Lapucci, Roberta, \u201cRestauri tardo settecenteschi alle pitture del Chiostrino dei Voti della SS. Annunziata,\u201d Rivista d\u2019Arte<\/em>, Ser. 4, III, 1987, 461\u2013474.<\/p>\n

The surface of the fresco is pitted all over as is clearly visible in the series of photographs made before the fresco was detached. After its detachment the pitted areas were filled and inpainted. The losses were greatest in the lower left corner where the original description of the drapery is no longer clearly visible. In its restored state the fresco has an even granular texture that was not evident before and the contrast of light and dark is stronger now.<\/p>\n

The Virgin\u2019s dress is a dusty violet with a green belt. Her overgarment is light blue, now largely gone, with white highlights. The angels are blond with green, red, violet, and white wings; the shading of the angels is greenish gray. At the top the clouds are ochre, but a dusty violet elsewhere. The cherubs\u2019 heads at the top of the fresco are ochre and violet. The first apostle, St. James, wears a black hat on brown hair; his undergarment is purple with yellow highlights and white at the neckline; his mantle is red. The second apostle has a gray heard and wears a russet undergarment, yellowish tan at the neckline, covered by a green cloak; his book is white with yellow edges. The third has gray-black hair and his only partially visible clothing is yellowish tan covered by a violet over-garment. The fourth figure has black hair and wears a red cloak over a purple undergarment with a green cast. The fifth, with white hair and beard, wears a light blue undergarment that is pink at the lower right; his cloak is yellowish tan. The sixth apostle has black hair and wears a barely visible green cloak over a black garment, purple at the neckline. The seventh, with blond hair, has a green cloak bordered with light tan decoration. The eighth figure has reddish hair and wears a pink garment under a red cloak with green decoration visible below just to the right of the seventh figure. The ninth apostle has white hair and beard and wears a rose-pink undergarment and a yellowish tan mantle edged with black decoration; his book is violet. The tenth wears a purple cloak with a large orange-tan collar. The eleventh has tan hair and wears a purple cloak over an orange-tan undergarment. The last apostle, with gray hair, wears a rose-pink cloak turned back and showing its light blue lining across the shoulders; blue also appears in the folds beneath his arm. The ground is olive green.<\/p>\n

DOCUMENTS: Although the subject of the fresco is not mentioned in the following documents of payments to Rosso they would appear to be for his Assumption<\/em> because of the amount of the total sum paid, the time covered, the location of the work in the \u201cc[h]iostricino\u201d, and the evidence of two other documents of 1515 and 1517 given below. The documents are preserved in A.S.F. Conv. Sopp. 119 (SS. Annunziata), 705 (Libro del Camarlingo, Entrata e Uscita, October 1512 to 1516):<\/p>\n

\n

c.112v., 20 November 1513: \u201cA muraglie ad\u00ec decto F. dua d\u2019oro suon per parte de dipingnere un quadro nel c[h]iostricino, port\u00f2 Giohanne batista di jacopo dipintore \u2014 L.14 \u2013 \u201d<\/p>\n

c.123r., 18 March 1513\/14: \u201cA muraglia ad\u00ec decto F. uno d\u2019oro per resto d\u2019uno quadro del c[h]iostricino, port\u00f2 Giohanne batista decto el rosso dipintore \u2014 L.7 \u2013 \u201d<\/p>\n

c.135r., 18 June 1514: \u201cA muraglia [a] giovanni batista dipintore ad\u00ec decto Fiorini tre largi d\u2019oro, sono per oro per chapitegli a per el quadro, port\u00f2 lui decto contanti \u2014 L.21 \u2013 \u201d2<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Rosso\u2019s fresco must have been judged unsatisfactory for the Assumption<\/em> was later re-commissioned to Andrea del Sarto. A.S.F. Conv. Sopp. 119 (SS. Annunziata), 52 (Libro di Ricordanze, 1510\u20131559), fol. 98r.:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cRichordo chome questo d\u00ec 16 di giugno [1515] e nostri Signori Operai tutti raghunati insieme, absente solo Orlando de\u2019Medici, vinsono con tutte fave nere d\u2019achordo l\u2019infrascritti partiti. E prima.<\/p>\n

\u201cE pi\u00f9 detti Signori Operai detto d\u00ec, tutti d\u2019accordo con tutte fave nere, alloghorono el quadro del chiostricino dov\u2019\u00e8 la Assunsione di Nostra Donna, a dipignervi detta storia d\u2019Assumpsione di Nostra Donna a Andrea d\u2019Agnolo, che ha dipinto quasi tutto el resto di detto chiostricino, per pregio di fiorini sedici larghi d\u2019oro in oro, cio\u00e8 f.XVI larghi d\u2019oro in oro, fatto patto con lui d\u2019achordo, con questo patto ch\u2019egli sia tenuto havere fornito di dipignere detto quadro per tutto el mese di genaio proximo avenire, con quella arte e diligenza a lui fia possibile.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the left margin: \u201cAloghagione a dipignere a Andrea d\u2019Agnolo la storia dell\u2019Assunsione.\u201d3<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The reference in this document to an already existing fresco in the atrium of SS. Annunziata in the phrase \u201cdov\u2019\u00e8 la Assunsione di Nostra Donna\u201d lends support to the supposition that the payments to Rosso of 1513 and 1514 were made for an Assumption<\/em>. No other documents or sources contradict that this supposed Assumption<\/em> is the still existing fresco by Rosso in the atrium of SS. Annunziata as Sarto never executed his.<\/p>\n

Milanesi, in Vasari-Milanesi, V, 157, n. 1, published a document of 18 April 1517 that he, followed by most writers, erroneously accepted as recording the commission for Rosso\u2019s existing fresco. But this document must be about an altogether different fresco at the Annunziata. However, it does contain a reference that supports an earlier dating for Rosso\u2019s Assumption<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A.S.F. Conv. Sopp. 119 (SS. Annunziata), 52 (Ricordanza B, 1510\u20131559), fol. 103r.:<\/p>\n

\n

Above in the left margin: \u201cAlloghagione di uno quadro del chiostrino a Giovan Batista di Iacopo, detto el Rosso.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c + 1517<\/p>\n

\u201cRichordo chome ogi, questo d\u00ec 18 d\u2019aprile, e nostri padri insieme raghunati, di nuovo rialoghorono a dipignere el quadro che \u00e8 presso alla porta di Sancto Bastiano, rivochando ogni altra alloghagione fatta in altri, a Giovan Batista di Iacopo, detto el Rosso, con questo patto che non si portando detto Rosso meglio che nel primo quadro da lui dipinto, egli non debba avere paghamento alchuno per detta dipintura, e nel chaso che egli havessi hauto da noi danaro alchuno, si obligha a restituirlo per lui Steffano d\u2019Agnolo nostro legnaiuolo. E per l\u2019uno e per l\u2019altro di detti Rosso e Stefano intr\u00f2 malevadore maestro Iacopo di Batista, nostro priore.\u201d4<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Although the subject of this picture is not specified, its intended location is given as \u201cpresso alla porta di Sancto Bastiano.\u201d This door (actually a pair of doors) occupies the arched area of the atrium immediately to the right of Sarto\u2019s Birth of the Virgin<\/em>. The next area to the right of the door is that just to the left of Franciabigio\u2019s Marriage of the Virgin<\/em>. There is no fresco there, nor is there any evidence that there ever was one in this area to the right of the door that now contains a quattrocento Madonna relief placed there much later.5<\/sup><\/a> The door to the Chapel of St. Sebastian is also mentioned in a contract made with Francesco di Lazzaro (Torni) on 1 December 1513 for the second of two frescoes in \u201cdue archi\u201d that he was to execute in the \u201cchiostricino\u201d but never did: the first arch \u201c\u2026 quello che \u00e8 tra la porta grande e la pichola di chiesa, dove debe dipignere quando e magi andoron a parlare a Herode in Jerusalem; e l\u2019altro archo \u00e8 quello che \u00e8 dove \u00e8 la porta del fianco della chapella di san Bastiano, dove debe dipignere una visione della Nativit\u00e0 di Nostra Donna con due Cibille et dua Astrolagi\u2026\u2026\u201d6<\/sup><\/a> The space of the second fresco would have been that near to, that is, to the right of, the door, as suggested by Shearman and Freedberg.7<\/sup><\/a> It follows, then, that this area would be the same one mentioned in the document of 18 April 1517. In that document the phrase \u201crivochando ogni altra alloghagione fatta in altri\u201d could, and probably does, refer to the earlier commission to Torni (barring the unlikely discovery of a document of the commission of another fresco to another artist for the same space). The \u201cprimo quadro da lui dipinto\u201d mentioned in 1517 would, in all likelihood, be Rosso\u2019s existing Assumption<\/em> of 1513\u20131514.8<\/sup><\/a> Shearman, 1960, 154, points out that Eliseo Biffoli, in his Notizie delle cose memorabili del Convento e Chiesa dell Nunziata\u2026<\/em>, begun in 1587, noted the date 1513 in the margin against his reference to Rosso\u2019s Assumption<\/em> (see below), which accords with the supposition that the payments of November 1513, March 1513\/14, and June 1514 are for this same fresco. Shearman, 1960, 154, n. 16, also gives Biffoli\u2019s comment (slightly differently transcribed here but substantially the same): \u201cRicardo che l\u2019anno 1517 si alog\u00f2 el 4o<\/sup> del chiostricino a Giovan Battista detto el Rosso.\u201d9<\/sup><\/a> As, in 1517, this cannot mean the fourth fresco executed in the atrium within any period \u201csi alog\u00f2 el 4o<\/sup>” must refer to the fourth arched area of the right side of the atrium where frescoes were executed during the second decade of the sixteenth century. Counting either from Sarto\u2019s Procession of the Magi<\/em>, occupying the first space of this series to the right of the right portal into the church or from Rosso\u2019s Assumption<\/em> of 1513\u201314 occupying the last space to the left of the entrance into the atrium, the fourth space is that to the right of the door to the Chapel of St. Sebastian. This would seem to be the same space indicated in the document of 18 April 1517 in which Rosso was to paint a fresco but which he never executed (L.10<\/a>).<\/p>\n

LITERATURE:<\/p>\n

\n

Mentioned by Vasari in 1550, 796\u2013797 (Vasari-Ricci, IV, 243), immediately after the \u201cNostra donna, con la testa di San Giovanni Evangelista meza figura\u201d painted for \u201cmaestro Iacopo frate de\u2019Servi\u201d: \u201cpersuaso da lui nel cortile de\u2019detti Servi allato alla storia della Visitazione, che lavor\u00f2 Iacopo da Pontormo, l\u2019assunzione di Nostra Donna, nella quale fece un cielo d\u2019Angeli tutti fanciulli ignudi, che ballano intorno alla Nostra Donna accerchiati, che scortano con bellissimo andare di contorni, et con graziosissimo garbo, girati per quella aria, di maniera che se il colorita fatto da lui fosse con quella maturit\u00e0 di arte, con ch\u2019egli poi crebbe co\u2019l tempo, avrebbe, come di grandezza et di buon disegno paragon\u00f2 l\u2019altre storie, di gran lunga ancora trapassatele. Fecevi gli Apostoli carichi molto di panni, et troppo di dovizia di essi pieni: ma le attitudini et alcune teste sono pi\u00f9 che bellissime;\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The same, but for a few words, in Vasari, 1568, II, 105 (Vasari-Milanesi, V, 156\u2013157).<\/p>\n

Bocchi, 1567 (see Williams, 1989 below).<\/p>\n

Borghini, 1584, 192.<\/p>\n

Biffoli, in his Notizie<\/em> begun in 1587: \u201c1513\u201d (in the margin), \u201cGiovambatista del Rosso, pittore fiorentino, dipinse l\u2019historia dell\u2019Assuntione di Nostra Donna ch\u2019\u00e8 a canto alla porta a mano manca: da\u2019giuditiosi viene lodato quel coro d\u2019Angeli, le figure sono biasimate come troppo dovitiose di panni.\u201d10<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Bocchi, 1591, 210\u2013211, withdraws the criticism made in 1567, stating: \u201cnelle teste apparische un\u2019aria dicevole alla condizione di chi \u00e8 dipinto.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bocchi-Cinelli, 1677, 423\u2013424.<\/p>\n

Migliore, 1684, 270.<\/p>\n

Richa, III, 1759, 60.<\/p>\n

Bottari in Vasari-Bottari, I, 1759, 294, n. 1, mentions St. James as a portrait of Francesco Berni which does not seem possible for the saint looks far older than seventeen, the oldest that Berni would have been when Rosso painted the fresco.<\/p>\n

L\u2019Etruria pittrice<\/em>, 1791, Pl. XXXXVII (etching and engraving) and following 2 pp., mentions that St. James is a portrait of Berni (Franklin, 1994, 26 and Pl. 21, 273, n. 105, as M. Lastri, L\u2019Etruria pittrice<\/em>, Vol. I, Florence, 1791, Pl. XLVII).<\/p>\n

Lanzi, 1795\u201396, I, 150.<\/p>\n

Burckhardt, 1855 (1910, 838).<\/p>\n

Milanesi, in Vasari-Milanesi, V (1878\u201385), 157, n. 1, connects the document of 1517 to this fresco.<\/p>\n

Goldschmidt, 1911, 15\u201318, thinks the document of 1517 indicates the completion of the work, the execution of which he puts in 1514\u201316; he also recognizes the composition and the gesture of the Virgin as dependent upon Fra Bartolommeo\u2019s Last Judgment<\/em> for S. Maria Nuova.<\/p>\n

Dated by Voss, 1920, I, 182\u2013185, around 1515 and discussed as compositionally similar to Titian\u2019s slightly later Frari Assumption<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Friedlaender, 1925, 70\u201371, Fig. 8, (1957, 28\u201329, Fig. 8), as Rosso\u2019s earliest work done around 1515 or 1516; the same by Pevsner, 1928, 28.<\/p>\n

Colnaghi, 1928, 236, connects the documents of 20 November (wrongly as 10 November) 1513 and 18 June 1514 to an Assumption<\/em> painted by Rosso in 1513 which, found unsatisfactory, was re-commissioned in 1517 (wrongly as 17 August).<\/p>\n

Frederick Antal, \u201cBreu und Filippino,\u201d Zeitschrift f\u00fcr bildende Kunst<\/em>, 1928\u201329, 37, points out how the central figure is related to one in D\u00fcrer\u2019s lost Heller Assumption<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Kusenberg, Strasbourg, 1931, 111\u2013112, acknowledges a relation to D\u00fcrer\u2019s Pentecost<\/em> from the Small Passion.<\/p>\n

Kusenberg, 1931, 8\u201311, 182, ns. 8, 15, 127, Pl. III, mentions the 1515 commission to Sarto and accepts 1517 as the date of Rosso\u2019s fresco. However, he notes that the door of the Chapel of St. Sebastian in the document of 1517 is not next to the fresco, and states that the earlier work referred to would have been either the Pucci arms or those of Leo X. He sees the drapery in general as related to that in Sarto\u2019s Magi<\/em> and in Pontormo\u2019s Visitation<\/em>, and finds the latter picture influential on Rosso\u2019s figure with the white beard just right of center. This, of course, cannot be true as Pontormo\u2019s fresco dates later.<\/p>\n

Meder, 1932, 78, as done in 1515.<\/p>\n

Venturi, 1932, 194 (document of 18 June 1514 mentioned), 201, 203, Fig. 111, 230, states that the documents of 1513 and 1514 published by Colnaghi may refer to the Assumption<\/em> which must have been already finished by 1517 when the document of that year refers to a renewal of the commission for it. Venturi is understandably confused here. He stresses the influence of Fra Bartolommeo.<\/p>\n

Kusenberg, 1935, 62, as Rosso, in 1517.<\/p>\n

Salmi, 1940, 79, as among Rosso\u2019s early works where he appears as a reactionary.<\/p>\n

Paatz, I, 1940, 93.<\/p>\n

Sabatini, 1941, 423\u2013424.<\/p>\n

Becherucci, 1944, 25, 56, accepts the date of 1517 and remarks on the \u201cvolti d\u2019una quasi secentesca potenza di realizzazione.\u201d<\/p>\n

Briganti, 1945, 100f., n. 14, as Rosso\u2019s first work done in 1513.<\/p>\n

Barocchi, 1950, 27\u201331, 245, Figs. 4\u20135, 7, as done in 1517.<\/p>\n

U. Baldini and L. Berti, Mostra di affreschi staccati<\/em>, Florence, 1957, 23\u201324, accept the 1517 date for the picture and state that the fresco was detached in April 1957 by Dino Dini.<\/p>\n

Shearman, 1960, 153f., follows Venturi in associating the payments of 1513 and 1514 with the Assumption<\/em> and suggests that the present fresco, related to the document of 1517, is a replacement of an earlier one. However, Shearman does not take into account the location \u201cpresso alla porta di Sancta Bastiano\u201d specified in the later document.<\/p>\n

Shearman, 1960, 154, n. 16, says that evidently Vasari was one of the \u201cgiuditiosi\u201d, and reports that the fresco was attributed around 1580 (Shearman, 1965, 404) to Jacopo Sansovino in the\u00a0Ricordi Antichi d\u2019Arte Fiorentina<\/em>.11<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Sinibaldi, 1960\u20131961, 34, as 1517.<\/p>\n

Freedberg, 1961, I, 541\u2013544, 607, II, Figs. 664\u2013665, as 1517, and showing the influence of D\u00fcrer and Fra Bartolommeo, including that of his Misericordia<\/em> altar in Lucca, the 1515 date of which would not make this possible.<\/p>\n

Briganti, 1961, 20, 22, 25, 27 (1962, 19, 20, 23, 25), as begun, along with Pontormo\u2019s Visitation<\/em>, in 1513 and completed between 1515 and 1517; he sees the influence of Sarto and the Frate but also the evidence of a new kind of art possibly influenced by Michelangelo.<\/p>\n

Brugnoli, 1962, 344. The first (St. James) and the sixth apostles were attributed by C. L. Ragghianti to Cecco Bravo, as reported in Anna Rosa Masetti, Cecco Bravo pittore toscano del Seicento<\/em>, Venice, 1962, 39, 44\u201345, 91\u201392, cat. no. 20, with Fig. 40, as \u201cRosso o Cecco Bravo (?).\u201d Masetti argues that they follow only partially the scheme of the design of Rosso\u2019s figures which, to her, had apparently deteriorated; she comments that Ragghianti, at the time of the restoration of the fresco, had noted them as insertions \u201cben visibili anche tecnicamente.\u201d No mention of this appears in the catalogue of the exhibition of detached frescoes of 1957 (see above). Nor is there any visible evidence of these supposed later insertions in the fresco in its present condition. Becherucci (see above) had commented upon the secentesque character of the heads in general in the fresco but in no way implied that they were actually of that period. The heads selected by Ragghianti have something of the special appearance of portraits and yet, in the ways that they are particularly characterized, they are very similar to the last apostle, and, though somewhat less so, to the one immediately before him. In its structure the head of the sixth apostle very much resembles that of the Virgin. The painting of the hair of all four of these apostles is handled exactly the same way; this is true of the draperies as well. There also does not seem to be any close stylistic relationship between the first two figures and any figures by Cecco Bravo, and Masetti makes no specific comparisons to support Ragghianti\u2019s attributions.<\/p>\n

Berenson, 1963, 194, as 1517.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1964 (1976), I, Bk. I, 41\u201343, 47, Bk. II, 1\u20132, 5, 7\u20139, 11\u201312, 16\u201318, 43, 112, P. 9, II, Bk. III, Fig. 14 (before restoration), as commissioned in 1517; Addition to the Preface, 1976, vii, as entirely executed in 1513\u201314.<\/p>\n

Hauser, 1965, 191, as 1517.<\/p>\n

Borea, 1965, as 1517, showing the influence of D\u00fcrer\u2019s prints, Leonardo\u2019s Adoration<\/em> and the Battle of Anghiari<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Shearman, 1965, II, 392, repeats his earlier opinion.<\/p>\n

Shearman, 1966, 158, 170f., n. 32, 171, n. 33, accepts Ragghianti\u2019s observations and suggests that in 1517 Rosso repainted his earlier fresco by replacing only the upper part. He also states that the fourth apostle from the left reflects, in reverse, a figure at the right of the \u201cBathers\u201d group in Michelangelo\u2019s Cascina cartoon.<\/p>\n

Freedberg, 1966, 583, as done in 1517.<\/p>\n

Clark, 1967, 11, 17, speaks of the Germanic intensity of the apostles\u2019 expressions.<\/p>\n

Hartt, 1969, 508\u2013509 (1987, 559, 560, Fig. 598), as 1517, and as showing two putti dangling the Virgin\u2019s girdle before St. Thomas\u2019 nose.<\/p>\n

Freedberg, 1971, 126\u2013127, as 1516\u20131517.<\/p>\n

Weiss, 1971, 35\u201336, Pl. XVIII, Fig. 25 (lower half before restoration), as 1517, as showing the massive and vigorous forms and exuberant gestures and movements of Sarto\u2019s recent classic art preceding the return of the gothic asceticism of Rosso\u2019s later S. Maria Nuova Altarpiece and the Volterra Deposition<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Ragghianti, 1972, 44.<\/p>\n

McKillop, 1974, 11, n. 62, 31, 138, 139, n. 1, as commissioned in 1515.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1976: see Carroll [1964] above, as executed in 1513\u201314.<\/p>\n

Dunkelman, 1976, 96, believes that the putti linking hands and with legs flying up behind indicate that Rosso had some knowledge of the conception of Donatello\u2019s Assumption<\/em> relief in Naples.<\/p>\n

Nyholm, 1977, 143\u2013144, 149, 154, Fig. 71, as 1517, pointed out the relation of figures beyond spatial limits of fresco.<\/p>\n

Barolsky, 1978, 102, 112, speaks of the apostles\u2019 faces as caricatures, and connects Rosso\u2019s work to \u201ca nasty wit that relates to the general mood of skeptical humor in early sixteenth-century Italy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berti, 1982, 45, 52, 55\u201359, 60, n. 31, as painted in 1517, but replacing an earlier Assumption<\/em> of 1513\u20131514. He accepts Bottari\u2019s identification of the first apostle, St. James, as a portrait of Francesco Berni, and recognizes the last two apostles as portraits of Rosso and his supposed natural father Fra Jacopo who commissioned the fresco, on whom he gives specific biographical information.<\/p>\n

Darragon, 1983, 23, 37, 56, Fig. 4 (before detachment), as of 1517; he interprets Vasari\u2019s comments as indicating its \u201canti-sprezzatura\u201d and sees other aspects of the fresco as bordering on caricature.<\/p>\n

Caron, 1983, 5, 7, n. 3, believes that the documents published by Shearman demonstrate that the fresco was completed in 1513\u20131514.<\/p>\n

Vasari-Darragon, 1984, 178, 192, n. 7, as commissioned in 1517.<\/p>\n

Dacos, 1984, 337, as 1517, and influential on Machuca\u2019s Vierge du Suffrage<\/em> in Madrid.<\/p>\n

Wilmes, 1985, 63, 66, 70, 76, 81, 88, 96\u201397, 99\u2013107, 132, 148, 163, 173, Fig. 3, as done after Pontormo\u2019s Visitation<\/em> next to it.<\/p>\n

Fischer, 1986, 156\u2013157, under no. 97, as Rosso, 1517, and presupposes knowledge of Fra Bartolommeo\u2019s treatment of the subject in a drawing in Munich of around 1516.<\/p>\n

Paolucci, Pittura, Cinquecento<\/em>, 1987, I, 300, 308, Fig. 459, as 1517.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1987, 14, 15, 16, 33, ns. 17\u201319.<\/p>\n

Caron, 1988, 356\u2013359, 362, Fig. 1, as 1513\u20131514, its color shows a more limited range of values than Sarto\u2019s, and more like Michelangelo\u2019s color.<\/p>\n

A. Giovanetti, in Pittura, Cinquecento<\/em>, 1988, II, 825, accepted Shearman\u2019s chronology.<\/p>\n

Williams, Robert, \u201cA Treatise by Francesco Bocchi in Praise of Andrea del Sarto,\u201d JWCI<\/em>, 52, 1989, 116, 126\u2013127, presents Bocchi\u2019s criticism of 1567, after praising Sarto\u2019s \u201ccostume\u201d, noting that Rosso \u201cmancandoci questo costume, il quale \u00e8 l\u2019imitatione de\u2019migliore, che in dipignere gli apostoli di necessit\u00e0 si richiedeva, non reca agli occhi nostre quel piacere che ad un opera tale bisognava.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaskinen, 1989, thought the ring of angels goes back to Botticelli\u2019s Mystic Nativity<\/em> of 1501 which has been related by Olson to stage machinery created by Brunelleschi.<\/p>\n

Natali, Paragone<\/em>, 1989, 27.<\/p>\n

Natali, in Natali and Cecchi, 1989, 7, 14, seems to have accepted the date of 1513\u20131514, and believed the fresco gives evidence of a trip to Rome.<\/p>\n

Ciardi and Mugnaini, 1991, 7, 9\u201310, 11, 18, 34\u201399, no. 1, with four Color Pls., 60, 130, as 1513\u20131514, and with an excellent discussion of its color.<\/p>\n

Natali, 1991, 142\u2013144, 147, with Figs.<\/p>\n

Natali, 1992, 210\u2013212, with Color Figs. (details).<\/p>\n

Hall, 1992, 152, Fig. 49, 153, as 1517, as not related to Sarto\u2019s sfumato in his Birth of the Virgin<\/em>, and almost belligerently hard-edged like Michelangelo\u2019s Doni tondo.<\/p>\n

Stefaniak, 1992, 715, n. 60, as of 1514.<\/p>\n

Del Bravo, 1993, 214, in relation to Michelangelo\u2019s \u201cscala di immaginazioni\u201d the piece of drapery that extends over the frame indicates an introverted and contemplative imagination.<\/p>\n

Falciani, in Gnocchi and Falciani, 1994, 58, Color Fig., 59.<\/p>\n

Mugnaini, 1994, 103.<\/p>\n

Ciardi, 1994, 22, 23, Fig., 24, 57\u201358, 60, Fig., 61, 66, 68, 71, 72, 81, 95, n. 122, 96, n. 136, as showing traces of Rosso\u2019s study of Masaccio\u2019s Brancacci frescoes and his study of Fra Bartolommeo but without the architectural support that accompanies his dancing putti; the absence of an empty sarcophagus, the usual semantic key to the scene, related to the fact that there is no canonical text for this scene and its details, and thus reflecting the scruples for a correct iconology on the part of the Servite order dedicated to the Virgin.<\/p>\n

Franklin, 1994, 1, 8, 10\u201312, 14\u201315, 17\u201330, 32\u20134, 35, 42, 44, 46, 50, 52\u201353, 56, 68, 70, 125, 206, 212, 250, 316, Color Pls. 18, 19, 22, 23, Pls. 17, 20, as done in 1513\u20131514 and Rosso\u2019s earliest surviving work, for which he must have been paid the standard 16 florins although the documents show only 6 suggesting that he may have worked longer than indicated by the documents although it can be assumed from the mention of gilding of the capitals that the work was completed at the date of the last document; its condition deplorable and frequently repainted; the first saint identified as St. James the Greater, the second holding a book and a cross as St. Andrew, the third looking up as possibly St. John the Evangelist, the fifth with white hair and beard as St. Peter, the beardless eighth dressed in red and green as St. Thomas looking up at the dangling girdle of the Virgin; he suggests that the angels were based on sculptural models perhaps by Jacopo Sansovino.<\/p>\n

Brilli, 1994, 23, 41, 42, 44, Color Pl., 45\u201346, as 1513\u20131514, with reference to a nineteenth century guidebook by Susan and Joanna Horner that dates it 1513.<\/p>\n

Costamagna, 1994, 22 and Fig. 5, 24, 94, n. 14, and 121, 122, ns. 2\u20133, under Cat. 17, as marked by the School of San Marco and giving no evidence of an early trip to Rome as thought by some historians; commissioned and dedicated to Fra Jacopo, probably Rosso\u2019s father, and in effect a visionary work that announces the art of the Counter-Reformation.<\/p>\n

Marchetti Letta, 1994, 7, 9, 10, Color Pl., 76, as recalling Fra Bartolommeo.<\/p>\n

Nova, 1995, 553.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It should be clear that the document of 1517 that has been associated with this fresco records the commission of another work and that the documents of 1513 and 1514 refer to Rosso\u2019s Assumption<\/em>, a conclusion that is in accord with Biffoli\u2019s sixteenth-century marginal note indicating that the fresco was done in 1513. No aspects of its style nor of its surface indicate that any part of it was executed at another time, a conclusion confirmed by the appearance of the lower half of the fresco in the sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century copies listed below.\u00a0 The first apostle can hardly be a portrait of Francesco Berni, as suggested by Bottari, as that poet was no more than seventeen years old when the fresco was executed. It also seems unlikely that the eleventh apostle with dark blond hair can be identified, following Berti\u2019s suggestion, as a portrait of Rosso whose name signifies that his hair was red. Berti\u2019s identification of the last apostle as a portrait of Fra Jacopo who commissioned the work is pure speculation. One might ask, however, why only one of the twelve apostles, the first, can be named with certainty, and then why that one happens to be St. James (S. Jacopo). It seems possible that this saint is a portrait of that Fra Jacopo who was so important to the career of the young artist, or at least in its specific identification, a reference to him.12<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

It is not clear to me that the drapery falling from around the body of the lowest angel is intended to be the Virgin\u2019s girdle. It is not held by the Virgin nor does the supposed St. Thomas reach up to receive it. Similar drapery also swirls around the bodies of other angels, mostly visible now by incised lines. It might also be noted that the Virgin wears a belt.<\/p>\n

In spite of the record of frequent restorations of the frescoes in the atrium and the evident damaged surface of Rosso\u2019s fresco, Franklin may be too severe in finding its state so deplorable that the heads of the apostles cannot be recognized as Rosso\u2019s by saying that some unspecified heads have survived only as repaint. Ragghianti had thought the first and sixth were by Cecco Bravo but Franklin thought these could not be singled out as all the heads share the same qualities. Much indeed is missing and some of what is seen is very probably not original, but there is in the individual characterization of the heads a great deal that seems due to Rosso and that resembles the variety of heads that appear in his later and better preserved pictures.<\/p>\n

I do not see that this fresco gives any indication of a trip to Rome where Rosso is first documented as being in April 1524 at the time of the commission of the Cesi Chapel frescoes (P.17<\/a>). All of its sources can easily be recognized in the immediately preceding work of Sarto and Fra Bartolommeo.<\/p>\n

COPIES: Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, unnumbered (neg. no. 5\/27), Anonymous, Copy of the fourth apostle <\/em>(Fig.P.3Copy, Cologne<\/a>). Black chalk and brown wash (over outlines in black chalk?), 22.5 x 15.6 (max. measurements); horizontal tear at the right center; coll.\u2019s mark, upper right corner: Col<\/em>. The figure in the drawing differs by having more and curlier hair, an undergarment with a squared neckline across the back and a sleeve covering the right arm to the elbow, a large round brooch fastening the cloak on the left shoulder, and his right heel raised from the ground. These difference could indicate that the drawing is copied from a lost study by Rosso for his fresco. But there is nothing in the style of the drawing itself nor in these differences that suggests such a conclusion. It seems more likely that the copyist in a sense \u201ccorrected\u201d the figure in the more academic taste of the end of the century.<\/p>\n

Florence, Uffizi, 15112F, as Giovanni Battista Fiammeri, Copy of the upper half of the fresco<\/em>, red chalk, 35.6 x 48.3 (arched), laid down; three vertical creases. Inscribed in red chalk across the bottom: Se tu beato chi la vidde intera \/\/ che sar\u00e0 dunelle[?] arivederla in cielo?<\/em> In pencil on the sheet on which the drawing is laid down: Fiammeri (dal Rosso dell\u2019Annunziata<\/em> and Fiammeri Giov. Batista<\/em>. LITERATURE: Ragghianti Collobi, 1974, I, 164, as by Fiammeri and perhaps once in Vasari\u2019s Libro de\u2019disegni<\/em>. This copy makes Rosso\u2019s figures more full-bodied and more Sartesque.<\/p>\n

Venice, Cini Foundation, ref. no. 30.938, Anonymous, Copy of the lower half of the fresco<\/em>, (Fig.P.3Copy, Venice<\/a>). Black chalk and brown wash, 21 x 30.9 (ragged at the top and bottom); what appears to be a number in ink in the lower right corner; coll.\u2019s mark at lower right; on the verso<\/em> is an architectural sketch in black chalk of part of an arch and the upper half of a flanking column; also on the verso<\/em>, inscribed in pencil, in English: gray br\u2026[?] [-]ol[-]berg [?]<\/em>, and Pentecost<\/em> and measurements (on a piece of brown mending paper). Dr. Silvano De Tuoni informed me that the drawing came from the Pozzi-Fissore Collection that Cini acquired in 1961. I believe that this is the drawing that I saw at De Beers Fine Arts Ltd. in London in the 1950s and that was brought to my attention by Philip Pouncey. The drawing copies the entire lower half of the fresco including the illusion of the piece of drapery hanging over the lower edge. The tail ends of the sash hanging around the bottom cherub in the fresco are visible at the top of the drawing but farther above the heads of the apostles than appears in the painting. This makes it unlikely that the drawing once also showed the upper half of the Assumption<\/em>. The drawing copies the fresco fairly accurately but in a somewhat abbreviating style.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/a>1<\/sup>According to Kusenberg, 1931, 182, n. 8, and repeated by Barocchi, 1950, 245.<\/p>\n

<\/a>2<\/sup> The documents are slightly corrected from Shearman, 1960, 153. See also Franklin, 1994, 296, Appendix A, DOCUMENTS 6a\u2013c; also 272, n. 71, as noted under 1513 in the last insert in ASF, Corp. RS, 119, vol. 59, fol. 8v<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>3<\/sup> Also published by Milanesi in Vasari-Milanesi, V, 67\u201368, without the first paragraph and the marginal note. Milanesi accidentally states that the Assumption<\/em> was painted by Pontormo. See also Clapp, 1916, 119, 200, Shearman, 1960, 153, Shearman, 1965, II, 392, doc. 31, and Franklin, 1994, 272, n. 74. McKillop, 1974, 138, reports Shearman\u2019s suggestion that Franciabigio was to have had the commission but lost it because of his temperament and his refusal to repair his Sposalizio<\/em> which he had damaged. This possibility is indicated by the fact that the record of the threatened legal action against Franciabigio (McKillop, 1974, 248, doc.30) in regard to his painting is actually part of the same document that gives the commission of an Assumption<\/em> to Sarto.<\/p>\n

<\/a>4<\/sup> Franklin, 1994, 297, Appendix A, DOCUMENT 11; also 273, n. 87, where it is stated that the document is noted in ASF, Corp. RS, 119, vol. 59, insert marked 10, fol. 18v<\/sup>, and vol. 58, fol. 71. Andreucci, Ottavio, Il Fiorentino Istruito nella Chiesa della Nunziata di Firenze<\/em>, Florence, 1857 (cover 1858), 119, 308, had earlier connected the document to Rosso\u2019s Assumption<\/em>, as noted by Franklin.<\/p>\n

<\/a>5<\/sup> See Shearman, 1960, 155, n. 31.<\/p>\n

<\/a>6<\/sup> A.S.F. Conv. Sopp. 119 (SS. Annunziata), 52 (Ricordanze B, 1510\u20131559), c. 91r. Transcribed by Milanesi, in Vasari-Milanesi, III, 679\u2013680, n. 1, with a few errors, the most significant being the name of the prior of SS. Annunziata which should be \u201cAurelio\u201d and not Tirentio. See also Franklin, 1994, 272, n. 72.<\/p>\n

<\/a>7<\/sup> Shearman, 1960, 155, n. 31; Freedberg, 1963, II, 31\u201332, n. 2. On the suggestion that the area above this door was the site of Rosso\u2019s lost fresco of the arms of Cardinal Lorenzo Pucci, see L.8<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>8<\/sup> As the \u201cmaestro Iacopo di Batista, nostro priore,\u201d mentioned in the document of 1517 would seem to be the same \u201cmaestro Giacopo frate de\u2019Servi\u201d for whom Rosso, according to Vasari, had painted a Madonna and Child with St. John the Evangelist<\/em> (P.2) it could be that the \u201cprima quadro\u201d was instead that panel picture, as possibly suggested by Milanesi, in Vasari-Milanesi, V. 157. But it does not seem very probable that this apparently private work would be referred to in a commission for a fresco in the atrium of SS. Annunziata, especially as one might assume that Fra Jacopo was himself satisfied with the painting that Rosso painted for him.<\/p>\n

<\/a>9<\/sup> A.S.F. Conv. Sopp. 119, 59, no. 19 (Notizie delle cose memorabili del Convento e Chiesa della Nunziata dell\u2019Ordine de\u2019Servi di Firenze, con Lodo di S. Antonio Arc.vo<\/sup> Fiorno<\/sup> e con le notizie dell\u2019Altar Maggiore, e alcune cappelle della detta Chiesa, scritte dal Preo<\/sup> Medo Eliseo Biffoli<\/em>), c. 8v. The full title and the quotation are taken from Shearman, 1960, 152, n. 3, 154, n. 16.<\/p>\n

<\/a>10<\/sup> See preceding note.<\/p>\n

<\/a>11<\/sup> P. Galletti, Rivista Fiorentina<\/em>, I, 2, 1908, 21.<\/p>\n

<\/a>12<\/sup> Because of similarities between elements in Rosso\u2019s Assumption<\/em> and in Sarto\u2019s Procession of the Magi<\/em> and Birth of the Virgin<\/em> at SS. Annunziata<\/em>, Antonio Natali, in Sarto<\/em>, 1986, 99, 100, n. 7 and Fig., under nos. VI\u2013VIII, believed that Rosso may have executed parts of those frescoes, the heavily draped figure in the left foreground (and the figure of Jacopo Sansovino at the far right?) in the Procession<\/em>, done fresh upon a trip to Rome, and some of the angels above the bed and the figure behind St. Anne in the other fresco. The heavily draped figure is also recognized as a self-portrait of Rosso, again done after a trip to Rome with Sarto and Pontormo, by Natali in Natali and Cecchi, 1989, 607, 40, and in Natali, Paragone<\/em>, 1989, 27, Fig. 17. Valle, 1994, 42, noted the presumed self-portrait in the Procession of the Magi<\/em>. Ciardi, 1994, 58, 59, Fig. thought the attribution of the figure to Rosso merited attention and reproduced it as Rosso\u2019s; Ciardi also mentioned a drawing in the Koenig Collection, Haarlem, related to Sarto\u2019s figure and certainly not by Rosso, but that \u201cpare assegnabile ad Andrea.\u201d Franklin, 1994, 273, n. 100, thought the suggestion of Rosso\u2019s participation in Sarto\u2019s fresco a romantic one. Costamagna, 1994, 94, n. 14, and 114, n. 1 under Cat. 10, found it difficult to accept Rosso\u2019s intervention in Sarto\u2019s fresco, and inconceivable that such an important figure in the Procession<\/em> was not by Sarto himself.<\/p>\n

While Rosso used aspects of Sarto\u2019s figure in the Procession<\/em> as a point of departure for his own in the Assumption<\/em> I cannot see that he had anything to do with the invention or execution of Sarto\u2019s painting of 1511. Nor with the Birth of the Virgin<\/em> which he may not have seen until his Assumption<\/em>, executed approximately at the same time, was completed. It should be noted that none of the drapery in Rosso\u2019s fresco turns much around<\/em> the figures, which the drapery certainly does in Sarto\u2019s frescoes.<\/p>\n

Berti, 1993, 182, brought up Pontormo and Rosso in relation to the execution of Sarto\u2019s Madonna and Child with St. Elizabeth, the Young St. John the Baptist and Two Angels<\/em> of around 1515 in the Louvre (no. 1515), suggesting evidence of Rosso in the profile angel, and of Pontormo in the other angel. The picture seems to me stylistically consistent everywhere as Sarto\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1513\u20131514 Florence, SS. Annunziata. Fresco, 395 x 385.1 Fig.P.3a restored Fig.P.3b bw, restored Fig.P.3c James Fig.P.3d\u00a0before detachment Fig.P.3e top half before detachment Fig.P.3f as viewed at floor level Fig.P.3g book The height of the fresco should be measured from just below the tip of the drapery that illusionistically falls outside the space of the picture. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":814,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-811","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/811","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=811"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11494,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/811\/revisions\/11494"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}