École de Pietro di Cristoforo VANUCCI, dit Il... Lot n° 8

The Virgin and Child with little Saint John and an angel, also known as the Madonna with the bag. Oil on canvas. Marouflaged on panel. Parquetage. 93 x 84,5 cm. Some wear and tear, restorations and repaints, especially on the perimeter and in the background. The composition on panel (87 x 85,5 cm) comes from the collection of Cardinal Leopold de Medici and is kept in Florence at the Pitti Palace (Cf. Serena Padovani, Il dipinti della Galleria palatina e degli Appartamenti Reali. Le Scuole dell'Italia Centrale 1450 - 1530 - n° 47 pp. 225-230 - Giunti 2014). Analogies: The similar motif of the Virgin adoring the child supported by an angel is found in several other works by Perugino, including the one in the National Gallery in London (Cf. Catalogue of the exhibition Perugino il divin pittore, I. 32, p. 234 (quoted) and Susanna Falabella, Appunti di viaggio, Per una storia della fortuna critica di Perugino in Inghilterra tra seicento e settecento, p. 419 (reproduced - Perugia 2004). Provenance: 1 - Collection Felice Antonio Alessandro Bensa (Genoa 1878-id.; 1963) Italian senator, industrialist and politician. 2 - Collection Alfredo Casali Remained in his descendants to this day. Bibliography: Luciano Micconi, Corriere della Sera. Una Mostra a San Martino. Antiquario all'ombra del Titano; June 30, 1969 "...una tavola che si considera una replica di bottega del Perugino della celebre " Madonna " attualmente a Palazzo Pitti ". Documents: 1 - A photocopy of a letter dated September 1964 from Professor Giovanni Mariacher (Perugia 1912-Padua 1994) considering the work to be an autograph replica of the one in the Galleria Pitti will be given to the buyer. The author indicates "Il dipinto, in ottimo stato di conservazione, mostra i caratteri inconfondibili della tecnica e delle qualità proprie di Pietro Vannucci, detto il Perugino". He points out that in his practice of replicas, Perugino had previously treated the motif of the Madonna with sackcloth in the central panel of the Polyptich of the Charterhouse of Pavia. He also indicates the Nativity in the Liechtenstein collection and the one in the Nancy museum. 2 - As well as a photocopy of a handwritten letter, without date, from the English historian Evelyn Sandberg Vavalà (1888-1961), a specialist in the Italian Renaissance, who considers it a "Bellissima composizione di Perugino nel momento più caratteristico e più suave della sua arte. She notes with the version of the Pitti Palace, a variation in the landscape.