Beskrivning: Se beskrivning i den engelska versionen.

Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 123:

TECHNICAL NOTES: The support consists of three hardwood
boards (poplar), vertical in grain and glued together vertically. On
the verso there is one horizontal crossbar inlaid into the panel and
another one, screwed on top of the first. There is a crack in the middle
of the painting, running down from the upper edge. Wormholes
and worm tunnels have been filled with wood. The verso is coated
with wax. The gesso ground is white. There is extensive retouching
and the paint layer is partially very abraded. IR reflectography reveals
distinct underdrawing and some pentimenti: for example, St
John’s cloak has been changed on his right shoulder. The varnish is
yellowed. Documented restorations: 1950: Consolidation of paint
layer. Crack mended, retouching. 1973: Conservation of the paint
layer. Retouching. 1981: Removal of the cross-batten. Cleaning of
the verso, crack glued, remounting of the cross-batten. Consolidation
of the paint layer. Retouching and varnish.

PROVENANCE: Gift of the Friends of the Nationalmuseum, 1912.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Crowe and Cavalcaselle 1914, p. 48; Borenius
1920, pp. 102–105; Borenius 1921; Sirén 1933, p. 60; NM Cat. 1958, p.
154; NM Cat. 1990, p. 273; Af Burén 2011, pp. 33–35.

EXHIBITED: Mariabilder, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 1988; Prerafaeliterna:
Dröm och verklighet i 1800-talets England, Nationalmuseum,
Stockholm, 2009; Passioner: Konst och känslor genom
fem sekler, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2012.
The Madonna is seated on a marble bench with
the standing Christ on her lap. The Child embraces
his mother and presses his cheek against
her. In her left hand the Virgin holds a book, and
there are three more placed on the bench behind
her. To the left of the Madonna and Child, St
John is depicted with his cross, leaning against
the bench. The background consists of a typical
quattrocento landscape with bushes and slender
trees.

The central part of the tondo, with the Madonna
and Child, is in quite a good state of preservation,
but the outer parts seem to have been
replaced and repainted during the 19th century.
This is confirmed by the different wood panels
and the appearance of the painting and the brushwork
on either side of the central scene.

The painting was acquired in 1912 on the initiative
of Osvald Sirén and was the first donation
from the funds of Nationalmusei Vänner (the
Friends of the Nationalmuseum).¹ The work was
first attributed to Piero di Cosimo by Tancred
Borenius in 1920,² although he also mentions
some similarities in the children’s features to the
work of Bartolomeo di Giovanni, and the attribution
has since been changed to Circle of Piero di
Cosimo. This attribution has been maintained in
recent publications on the painting.³

There is a very similar painting in the National
Gallery of Scotland, which has an anonymous
attribution but is said to have been painted
under the influence of both Piero di Cosimo and
Filippino Lippi, while the landscape is more in
the style of Raffaello Botticini.⁴ There is also a
fragment attributed to a follower of Piero di Cosimo
in the Philadelphia Museum of Art,⁵ which
has some points of resemblance to the tondo in
the Nationalmuseum. It is difficult to reconstruct
the relationship between these three panels, but
the Nationalmuseum painting may be a copy of
the Edinburgh version or of a now lost original. A
fair date of the Madonna and Child and the Infant
St John is around the year 1500, and the work is
assumed to have a Florentine provenance.
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1 Af Burén 2011, p. 33.
2 Added in Borenius’ revised edition of Crowe and Cavalcaselle
1914, p. 48; Borenius 1920; Borenius 1921.
3 Af Burén 2011, p. 34; Sidén and Herder 2012, p. 25. The
painting is unfortunately reproduced in reverse in the most
recent publications.
4 Florentine School, The Virgin and Child with the Infant St
John the Baptist, NG 645, National Gallery of Scotland,
Edinburgh.
5 Piero di Cosimo, follower of, Virgin and Child, cat. 76,
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.[End]

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2011

Madonnan med barnet och unge Johannes Döparen