Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist

Artist Giuliano Bugiardini (Italian, 1475 - 1554)

Date1510/1512

MediumOil with traces of tempera, transferred to Masonite from wood panel

DimensionsOverall: 49 1/2 inches (125.73 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number68-10

SignedNone

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionA seated woman (the Madonna) wearing a red dress holds a naked male child (Christ) on her lap; the child leans toward a child (Saint John the Baptist); the Christ child's hand is raised in blessing. The Baptist kneels next to the Madonna and wears a short brown tunic; he holds a reed cross. A narrow partially unrolled scroll rests on the ground near his left foot and reveals the letters: [E]CCE . AG[NUS DEI]. In the left middle ground are a group of exposed rocks and two trees; in the left background is one building. In the right background is a stable and tree; beyond that is a walled city.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Exposition de tableaux, statues et objets d’art au profit de l’oeuvre des Orphelins d’Alsace–Lorraine, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France, 1885, no. 222.

Gallery Label

The compact, triangular arrangement of the figures in this painting is typical of the classical taste of the Italian Renaissance in the early 16th century. The circular tondo format was more commonly found in sculpture, as can be seen in Andrea della Robbia's Roundel with the Bust of a Saint and the Madonna and Child by Ferrucci. The landscape, rather detached from the foreground figures, is rendered with calm clarity. On the right is the stall where Christ was born with Joseph depicted outside. Coming down the road are Tobias and the Archangel Raphael, possibly included because Bugiardini's patron was a member of a confraternity devoted to the Archangel.

Provenance

Sir William Neville Abdy, 2nd Baronet (1844-1910), London, by 1885-1910;

Purchased at his posthumous sale, The Collection of Highly Important Pictures by Old Masters of Sir William Neville Abdy, Bart., Christie, Manson and Woods, London, May 5, 1911, lot 106, as by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, by Charles Sedelmeyer (1837-1925), Paris, 1911-at least 1914;

With Reinhardt Galleries, New York, by 1929 [1];

With Meredith Liquidators, Inc., New York, as by Ghirlandaio, by August 5, 1939;

Purchased from Meredith Liquidators by Anna, Duchess of Talleyrand-Perigord (1875-1961), Lyndhurst, Tarrytown, New York, August 5, 1939-1961 [2];

Purchased at her posthumous sale, as by Italian School, by Frederick Mont, Inc., New York, 1961-1968 [3];

Purchased from Mont by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1968.

NOTES:

[1] According to an annotated photograph at the Witt Library, Courtauld Institute of Art, London.

[2] A photocopy of the receipt accompanying this sale was kindly furnished by Henry J. Duffy, Curator, Lyndhurst, NAMA curatorial files.

[3] According Frederick Mont, in a letter to Eliot Rowlands, Assistant Curator, February 6, 1990, NAMA curatorial files. No catalogue appears to have accompanied the sale.

Published References

Exposition de tableaux, statues et objets d’art au profit de l’oeuvre des Orphelins d’Alsace-Lorraine, exh. cat. (Paris, 1885), 66, (repro.), as Ridolfo Ghirlandaio.

Catalogue of the Collection of Highly Important Pictures by Old Masters of Sir William Neville Abdy, Bart. (London: Christie, Manson and Woods, May 5, 1911), 23.

Charles Sedelmeyer, Hundred Masterpieces: A Selection from the Pictures by Old Masters Which Form or Have Formed Part of the Sedelmeyer Gallery (Paris: Charles Sedelmeyer, 1914), 128, 129, (repro.), as Ridolfo Ghirlandaio.

Henry C. Marillier, “Christies,” 1766 to 1925 (London: Constable, 1926), 131, as “Ghirlandajo.”

Written attestation by W.R. Valentiner, undated (c. 1930), NAMA curatorial files.

E. Fahy, inscription on photograph, April 1967, Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence.

Donald L. Hoffman, “A Florentine Madonna: ‘Sweet and Facile Grace,’” Kansas City Star (December 8, 1968): F1–F2, (repro.).

Art Quarterly 32, no. 1 (1969): 72, (repro.).

Gazette des Beaux-Arts 75 (1970): 53, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 83, (repro.).

Helen T. Gray, “Nativity’s Story Familiar Details Came Later,” Kansas City Times (December 20, 1986): C1, (repro.).

Giulio Bora, et al., Disegni e dipinti leonardeschi dale collezioni milanesi, exh. cat. (Milan: Electa, 1987), 143.

Laura Pagnotta, Giuliano Bugiardini (Torino: U. Allemandi, 1987), 27, 31, 195, 196, (repro.).

Giuliano Briganti, ed., La Pittura in Italia: Il cinquecento, vol. 2 (Milan: Electa, 1988), 657.

M. Nasoni, ed., Pinacoteca di Brera: Scoule lombarda e piemontese, 1300–1535 (Milan: Electa, 1988), 192.

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson–Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 128-29, 149 (repro.).

Eliot W. Rowlands, Italian Paintings, 1300-1800: The Collections of the Nelson–Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson–Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 21, 142, 147–152, (repro.).

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