Albertinelli, Mariotto, 1474-1515; Bartolomeo, fra, 1472-1517; Sarto, Andrea del, 1486-1530
The _Holy Family_ which he painted for Filippo di Averardo Salviati,
and which is now in Earl Cowper's collection at Panshanger, is an almost
Raphaelesque work, and attains the greatest excellence in art. The
composition is his favourite triangle, touched in with the flowing lines
of the mother seated on the ground with the two children before her. S.
Joseph is in the background. The greatest softness of flesh tints must
have been perceptible when new, for, "in spite of the abrasions produced
by time, the delicate tones brought out by transparent glazes fused one
over another are apparent." The landscape with an echo subject of
the flight into Egypt is thought by Crowe and Cavalcaselle to be by
Albertinelli.
In 1510 the partners had a large order from Giuliano da Gagliano, who,
on the 2nd November, 1510, and 14th January, 1511, paid, in two rates,
the sum of 154 ducats. The picture, which is Fra Bartolommeo's own
painting, unfortunately cannot be traced.
In 1511 a long list of works are enumerated--a _Nativity_, valued two
ducats, a _Christ bearing the Cross_, and an _Annunciation_, sold to the
Gonfaloniere for six ducats--pictures which are dispersed in England,
Pavia, &c.; but the masterpiece of the time is the _Marriage of S.
Catherine_, now in the Louvre. The Florentine government bought it for
300 ducats in 1512, to present to Jacques Hurault, Bishop of Autun, who
came to Florence as envoy of Louis XII. He left it to his cathedral
at Autun, from whence, at the Revolution, it passed to the Louvre.
[Footnote: Padre Marchese, _Memorie_, lib. iii. ch. iv. p. 77. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle, _History of Painting_, vol. iii. chap. xiii. p. 452.]
Before it was sent away, Fra Bartolommeo made a replica of it, which
is now in the Pitti Palace. There is his favourite canopy supported by
angels; in this case they are beautifully foreshortened. The Virgin is
seated on a pedestal, holding by one arm an exquisitely moulded child
Jesus of about four years old, who is espousing S. Catherine of Siena,
kneeling at His feet on the left. A semicircle of saints group on each
side of the Virgin, and two angels, with musical instruments, are at
her feet; the upturned face of one is exquisitely foreshortened. The
S. George in armour is a powerful figure; and in S. Bartholomew, on
the left, is the same grand feeling which he afterwards brought to
perfection in S. Mark. The grace of the Virgin's figure is not to be
surpassed; if Raphael's Madonnas have more sentiment, this has more
dignified grace. He has remembered Leonardo's precept, "that the two
figures of a group should not look the same way"; the contrast of the
flowing lines in these two forms is very lovely. The same contrast of
lines, and yet balance of form, is carried out in the two S. Catherines
who form the pyramid on each side of her, and in the varied characters
of the encircling group of saints. The deleterious use of lampblack has
spoiled the colouring; it, moreover, hangs in a bad light at the Pitti
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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