A series of smaller rooms, no less gorgeously decorated, adjoins the
Sala dell' Iliade. In the _Sala dell' Educazione di Giove_ are: Fra
Bartolommeo's Holy Family with St. Elizabeth (256), over the door; the
Zingarella or Gipsy Girl (246), a charming little idyllic picture by
Boccaccino of Cremona, formerly ascribed to Garofalo; Philip IV. of
Spain (243) by Velasquez. Carlo Dolci's St Andrew (266) is above his
usual level; but it is rather hard to understand how Guido Reni's
Cleopatra (270) could ever be admired.
In the _Sala di Prometeo_ are some earlier paintings; but those
ascribed to Botticelli, Filippino Lippi, and Ghirlandaio are merely
school-pieces. Fra Filippo Lippi's Madonna and Child with the
Pomegranate (343) is a genuine and excellent work; in the background
are seen the meeting of Joachim and Anne, with the Nativity of the
Blessed Virgin. Crowe and Cavalcasella observe that "this group of the
Virgin and Child reminds one forcibly of those by Donatello or
Desiderio da Settignano," and it shows how much the painters of the
Quattrocento were influenced by the sculptors; the Madonna's face, for
no obvious reason, is said to be that of Lucrezia Buti, the girl whom
Lippo carried off from a convent at Prato. A curious little allegory
(336) is ascribed by Morelli to Filippino Lippi. We should also notice
the beautiful Madonna with Angels adoring the Divine Child in a rose
garden (347), a characteristic Florentine work of the latter part of
the Quattrocento, once erroneously ascribed to Filippino Lippi; an
Ecce Homo in fresco by Fra Bartolommeo (377); a Holy Family by
Mariotto Albertinelli (365); and a tondo by Luca Signorelli (355), in
which St. Catherine is apparently writing at the dictation of the
Divine Child. But the two gems of this room are the head of a Saint
(370) and the portrait of a man in red dress and hat (375) by one of
the earlier painters of the Quattrocento, probably Domenico Veneziano;
"perhaps," writes Mr Berenson, "the first great achievements in this
kind of the Renaissance." Here, too, is a fine portrait by Lorenzo
Costa (376) of Giovanni Bentivoglio.
In the _Sala del Poccetti_, _Sala della Giustizia_, _Sala di Flora_,
_Sala dei Putti_, the pictures are, for the most part, unimportant.
The so-called portrait of the _bella Simonetta_, the innamorata of
Giuliano dei Medici (353), is not authentic and should not be ascribed
to Sandro Botticelli. There are some fairly good portraits; a Titian
(495), a Sebastiano del Piombo (409), Duke Cosimo I. by Bronzino
(403), Oliver Cromwell by Lely (408). Calumny by Francia Bigio (427)
is curious as a later rendering of a theme that attracted the greatest
masters of the Quattrocento (Botticelli, Mantegna, Luca Signorelli all
tried it). Lovers of Browning will be glad to have their attention
called to the Judith of Artemisia Gentileschi (444): "a wonder of a
woman painting too."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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