This dynastic portrait shows the Florentine banker Francesco Sassetti (1421–1490) and his young son Teodoro, who was born in 1479. He was named after his elder brother, who died that same year. Sassetti managed the Medici banks in Avignon, Geneva, and Lyons and was an advisor to Piero de' Medici and Lorenzo the Magnificent. The combination of full face and profile gives the picture a decidedly formal quality, in keeping with its function as a commemoration of a loss and regeneration. The background shows an oratory built by Sassetti in Geneva. The same building recurs in the magnificent frescoes painted by Ghirlandaio for Sassetti in Santa Trinita, Florence, between 1483 and 1486. The head and figure of Sassetti in this portrait are much repainted.

Although most of the picture surface survives in good condition, the man's head has been obliterated by harsh cleaning some time before 1894. His face is now entirely overpainted and it is unclear how much of the original body color remains. Infrared reflectography reveals fluent underdrawing, with wrinkles around the left eye, making the man appear to be older than he looks in the restored face. The landscape, the sky, and the boy's head are well preserved, but boy's hands, like those of his father, are entirely overpainted.

The compromised condition has given rise to disagreement about the painting's attribution and date. Adolfo Venturi (1911) assigned it to the artist's workshop, a view shared by other critics and repeated most recently by Ronald G. Kecks (2000). Richard Offner (in de Roover 1948) suggested that the picture was a replica painted in the 1480s, mostly by an assistant of Ghirlandaio, of a lost portrait that the young Ghirlandaio had presumably painted in the late 1460s. But surely Jean Cadogan (2000) is right to maintain that the "well preserved parts, for example in the face of the child, attest to the execution by Domenico himself."

A Latin inscription at the top, added some time after the picture was painted but probably recording a reliable tradition (Zeri and Gardner 1971), identifies the sitter as Francesco Sassetti. A general manager of the Medici bank, Sassetti married Nera Corsi in 1459, and the following year he acquired property in the countryside north of Florence where he built the Villa La Pietra (now part of New York University). A bibliophile, an avid collector of ancient coins, and a supporter of humanist studies, he is best remembered as the patron of Domenico Ghirlandaio, who decorated the Sassetti family's burial chapel in the church of Santa Trinita, Florence, between 1483 and 1485.

Several datable portraits of Sassetti exist, but unfortunately the ruined condition of the MMA portrait precludes comparison with these likenesses. Evidence for its date, nevertheless, lies in the identity of the youth at Sassetti's side. The Latin inscription only gives his name, Teodoro. But as Aby Warburg (1907) observed, Sassetti named two of his five legitimate sons Teodoro: the first, born on July 23, 1460, died sometime in late 1478 or early 1479 (Borsook and Offerhaus 1981, p. 11 n. 10, p. 16 n. 34, p. 60 document 6), and certainly before May 11, 1479 when Sassetti's last son was born and baptized Teodoro, following the then popular custom of naming newborns after deceased siblings.

Controversy persists over which Teodoro is portrayed. Some historians think he is the elder son (de Roover 1948, Borsook and Offerhaus 1981, Cadogan 2000), others maintain he is the younger Teodoro (Warburg 1907, L. Venturi 1931, Zeri and Gardner 1971, Edwards 2008). As the boy appears to be about ten or eleven years old, it follows that if the older Teodoro is depicted the painting must date from about 1470, the moment when Ghirlandaio painted his earliest works in a crisp, fastidious style quite unlike the fulsome character of the Metropolitan's double-portrait. If he is the younger Teodoro, his apparent age would place the painting about 1490, a date consonant with the painting's style. The second Teodoro is also depicted in the Sassetti chapel as the revived boy in one of the main murals, the Resuscitation of the Roman Notary's Son.

[2011]

Support:

The support comprises two poplar boards of tangential cut, but joined at center. The X-ray reveals sections of fabric, approximately 4 cm in width, bridging the join from top to bottom. The panel is close to its original thickness, but has been thinned slightly (it is 2.8 cm thick), revealing extensive worm channels on the reverse. It was evidently cradled in the past, though the cradle was subsequently removed. On the reverse is a grid of patches of chisel marks where the fixed members were chiseled off. The panel has a mild convex bow. The top and bottom edges have been trimmed slightly; the lateral edges have not been trimmed. The lateral edges have a layer of yellow paint (or bole?) that is very old, patinated, and fragmentary; this coating is not present on the top and bottom edges where the panel has been trimmed. The painting originally had an engaged frame: there are borders of unpainted wood all around the painting: approximately 5.3 cm wide at the sides and 4 cm wide at the top and bottom. There are remnants of glue on the unpainted border that may be the original glue used to attach the framing elements; it could also have been applied at some point to reglue these elements.

Ground/paint:

There is a white gesso-type ground (not analyzed). On all the edges of the painting there is a barbe of ground and paint from the original engaged frame. In addition to the engaged frame there is also an interior, painted frame separating the figures from the landscape background.

Study of the X-ray and infrared reflectogram shows changes around the head of Sassetti. It appears that Sassetti's head was blocked in slightly larger than it was painted; the IRR shows a rough application of paint (green underpaint?) outside the present contour but following its general shape. The X-ray shows that opaque paint was used to cover over the original, larger contour. Infrared reflectography reveals underdrawing with a brush in a carbonaceous material. The underdrawing in Sassetti's face is likely to have been applied over the blocked-in underpaint, though this cannot be confirmed without analysis. The contours and features of Sassetti's face are underdrawn, including wrinkles around his left eye, and lines extending from the nostril to the outside of the mouth that are different from those that we now see. Infrared reflectography also reveals that Sassetti's left eye was originally placed slightly higher than it is now. The appearance of the underdrawn face is older than the face we see now, which has been repainted (see below). IRR also shows some folds in the clothing. In shaded passages of Sassetti's red lake robe is dense parallel hatching, notably around the face of the child.

In the infrared reflectogram, it can be seen that the child's chin was originally drawn outside its final, painted contour.

The painting has not had any conservation treatment since its arrival at the Met. The condition of Sassetti's face and the extent to which it has been repainted have been long-standing issues. Under magnification it can be seen that the face is entirely overpainted. It seems that the upper layers of paint have been entirely abraded down to the green underpaint. It is not possible to determine how much original body color remains without testing. In our judgment the painting should not be cleaned. The chances are great that little original remains.

The condition of the balance of the painting is as follows:

The face of the child is essentially well preserved. The hands of the child, like Sassetti's face, are entirely overpainted, as are the hands of Sassetti.

The deep red lake glaze employed to model the red hat of Sassetti's son is almost completely blanched. A sliver of the original color remains along the edge. The red lake glaze in the passage of the red chair below Sassetti's right arm is also blanched. The color of Sassetti's hat was constructed primarily with red lake. The overpaint applied in the last restoration is mainly brown in color, and falsifies the overall rich (but perhaps not so bright) red lake color of the original hat. It is possible that the hat originally was essentially the same color as his robe. Sassetti's red lake robe is essentially well preserved. His black purse was painted after the robe. The cut velvet jacket of the child, although worn, is well preserved, as is his belt. The child's green sleeves are essentially well preserved but there is some repatination of the upper layers of the discolored copper green paint which appear to have been abraded during an early cleaning.

The landscape and sky are essentially well preserved.

[Charlotte Hale 2010]

Inscription: Inscribed (top): FRAN[CISCV]S SAXETTVS THEODORVS QUE·F[ILIVS] (Francesco Sassetti and [his son] Teodoro)

William Graham, London (by 1875–d. 1885; inv., 1882, no. 208, as by Ghirlandaio; his estate sale, Christie's, London, April 8–10, 1886, no. 263, as by Ghirlandaio, for £535.10 to Colnaghi); [Colnaghi, London, from 1886]; Robert H. and Evelyn Benson, London (by 1893–1927; cat. 1914, no. 27, as by Ghirlandaio; sold to Duveen); [Duveen, London and New York, 1927; sold for $350,000 to Bache]; Jules S. Bache, New York (1927–d. 1944; his estate, 1944–49; cats., 1929, unnumbered; 1937, no. 7; 1943, no. 7)

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Winter Exhibition," 1875, no. 188 (lent by W. Graham).

London. New Gallery. "Exhibition of Early Italian Art from 1300 to 1550," 1893–94, no. 105 (lent by R. H. Benson).

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Winter Exhibition," January–March 1893, no. 149 (lent by R. H. Benson).

London. Grafton Galleries. "National Loan Exhibition," October 1909–January 1910, no. 67 (lent by R. H. Benson).

London. Burlington Fine Arts Club. "Florentine Painting Before 1500," 1920, no. 23 (lent by R. H. Benson).

City of Manchester Art Gallery. "Loan Exhibition of the Benson Collection of Old Italian Masters," April 27–July 30, 1927, no. 61 (lent by R. H. Benson).

Paris. Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris. "Exposition de l'art italien de Cimabue à Tiepolo," 1935, no. 184 (lent by Jules S. Bache).

New York. World's Fair. "Masterpieces of Art: European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300–1800," May–October 1939, no. 141 (lent by Jules S. Bache).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Bache Collection," June 16–September 30, 1943, no. 7.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art Treasures of the Metropolitan," November 7, 1952–September 7, 1953, no. 89.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Florentine Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum," June 15–August 15, 1971, no catalogue.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art and Love in Renaissance Italy," November 11, 2008–February 16, 2009, no. 127.

Fort Worth. Kimbell Art Museum. "Art and Love in Renaissance Italy," March 15–June 14, 2009, no. 127.

Berlin. Bode-Museum. "Gesichter der Renaissance: Meisterwerke italienischer Portrait-Kunst," August 25–November 20, 2011, no. 42.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini," December 21, 2011–March 18, 2012, no. 42.

Catalogue of Pictures, Ancient and Modern, 35 Grosvenor Place. 1882, no. 208 [see letter of September 27, 1982 in archive file], as "Portrait of Count Sassetto and his Son," by Domenico Ghirlandaio.

[George Redford]. "The Graham Collection." Times (April 12, 1886), p. 6 [reprinted in George Redford, "Art Sales," London, 1888, vol. 1, p. 434].

Costanza Jocelyn Ffoulkes. "Le esposizioni d'arte italiana a Londra." Archivio storico dell'arte 7 (1894), p. 166, calls it an original work by Domenico Ghirlandaio that has been much overpainted.

Hermann Ulmann. "Photographische Reproductionen der in der New Gallery 1894 aus englischem Privatbesitz ausgestellten italienischen Bilder." Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 17 (1894), p. 493, attributes it to Ghirlandaio.

Ernst Steinmann. Ghirlandajo. Bielefeld, 1897, p. 34 n., p. 80, includes it among the genuine works of Ghirlandaio.

Emil Schaeffer. Das Florentiner Bildnis. Munich, 1904, pp. 112–13, attributes it to Ghirlandaio.

Salomon Reinach. Répertoire de peintures du moyen age et de la renaissance (1280–1580). 1, Paris, 1905, p. 232, ill. (engraving), reproduces an engraving of the picture as it appeared before cleaning.

Lionel Cust. "La collection de M. R.-H. Benson." Les arts 6 (October 1907), p. 26, ill. p. 13, attributes it to Ghirlandaio.

Henri Hauvette. Ghirlandaio. Paris, 1907, p. 134, attributes it to Ghirlandaio and dates it 1485; compares it to Ghirlandaio's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel and in the Sassetti chapel in the church of Santa Trinita in Florence, but doubts whether the man is Francesco Sassetti.

Aby Warburg. "Francesco Sassettis letztwillige Verfügung." Kunstwissenschaftliche Beiträge August Schmarsow gewidmet. Leipzig, 1907, p. 146 n. 11 [reprinted in A. Warburg, "Gesammelte Schriften," Leipzig, 1932, vol. 1, p. 132 n. 5], attributes it to Ghirlandaio and calls it a portrait of the younger Teodoro with his father, noting that Francesco Sassetti had two sons by that name, and that the older one died the same year that the younger was born.

Bernhard Berenson. The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance. 3rd ed. New York, 1909, p. 138, attributes it to Ghirlandaio.

Joseph Archer Crowe, and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. "Florentine Masters of the Fifteenth Century." A History of Painting in Italy: Umbria, Florence and Siena from the Second to the Sixteenth Century. 4, London, 1911, pp. 336–37 n. 5, Douglas attributes it to Ghirlandaio and compares it to the Louvre portrait [see Notes].

Adolfo Venturi. "La pittura del quattrocento." Storia dell'arte italiana. 7, part 1, Milan, 1911, pp. 769–70, rejects the attribution to Domenico Ghirlandaio, cosidering it and the Louvre portrait workshop pieces.

Catalogue of Italian Pictures at 16, South Street, Park Lane, London and Buckhurst in Sussex collected by Robert and Evelyn Benson. London, 1914, pp. 50–52, no. 27, ill., attributes it to Ghirlandaio, calls it a portrait of Francesco Sassetti and the younger Teodoro, and dates it 1487–89.

Paul Erich Küppers. Die Tafelbilder des Domenico Ghirlandaio. Strasbourg, 1916, p. 44, attributes it to Ghirlandaio and dates it soon after 1485, the time of the frescoes in the Sassetti chapel of Santa Trinita.

Paul Erich Küppers in Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. 13, Leipzig, 1920, p. 558, considers it probably an autograph work by Ghirlandaio, though not of the highest quality.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Collection of Jules S. Bache. New York, 1929, unpaginated, ill. and frontispiece (color), attributes it to Ghirlandaio, identifies the boy as the younger Teodoro Sassetti, and dates it 1487–89.

Esther Singleton. Old World Masters in New World Collections. New York, 1929, p. 71–72, ill., follows Ref. Bache 1929 on attribution, dating, and identification of the sitters.

August L. Mayer. "Die Sammlung Jules Bache in New-York." Pantheon 6 (December 1930), p. 541, attributes it to Ghirlandaio.

H. E. Wortham. "The Bache Collection." Apollo 11 (May 1930), p. 354, fig. III, attributes it to Ghirlandaio and believes the boy is the same one who appears in the Louvre portrait.

Alfred M. Frankfurter. "Ghirlandaio and Mainardi: A Study in Portraiture." Antiquarian 17 (November 1931), p. 58, ill. p. 25, considers it Ghirlandaio's first portrait showing the subject's full face; compares it with the portrait of Matteo Sassettiano (E. D. Levinson collection, New York) and with other portraits from the Ghirlandaio-Mainardi circle.

Raimond van Marle. "The Renaissance Painters of Florence in the 15th Century: The Third Generation." The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. 13, The Hague, 1931, p. 57, fig. 32.

Raimond van Marle. "Tre ritratti di Domenico Ghirlandaio." Bollettino d'arte 25 (1931), p. 10.

W[illiam]. [E.] Suida. "A Portrait of a Youth by Domenico Ghirlandaio." Apollo 13 (January–June 1931), p. 40, notes that it has been connected with "a pupil [of Ghirlandaio] or with a painter in the artist's immediate circle".

Lionello Venturi. Pitture italiane in America. Milan, 1931, unpaginated, pl. CCVI, attributes it to Ghirlandaio, dates it 1487–89, and observes the influence of Masaccio.

Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 225, as "Francesco Sassetti and Grandson".

Lionello Venturi. "Fifteenth Century Renaissance." Italian Paintings in America. 2, New York, 1933, unpaginated, pl. 268.

Luigi Serra. "La Mostra dell'antica arte italiana a Parigi." Bollettino d'arte 29 (July 1935), p. 37, ill. p. 34, attribtes it to Ghirlandaio.

Bernhard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936, p. 194.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. under revision. New York, 1937, unpaginated, no. 7, ill.

George Henry McCall. Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300–1800: Masterpieces of Art. Exh. cat., World's Fair. New York, 1939, p. 70, no. 141, pl. 19.

Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941, unpaginated, no. 113, ill., attributes it to Ghirlandaio and dates it about 1487–89.

Paul Wescher. Grosskaufleute der Renaissance: In Biographien und Bildnissen. Basel, 1941?, p. 182, ill. p. 53, attributes it to Ghirlandaio and dates it about 1485.

Regina Shoolman, and Charles E. Slatkin. The Enjoyment of Art in America. Philadelphia, 1942, pp. 291–92, colorpl. 1, attribute it to Ghirlandaio and compare it to the Louvre portrait.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. rev. ed. New York, 1943, unpaginated, no. 7, ill.

Florence Edler De Roover. "Francesco Sassetti and the Downfall of the Medici Banking House." Bulletin of the Business Historical Society 17 (October 1943), p. 77 n. 8, attributes it to Ghirlandaio and identifies the boy as the older Teodoro.

Jan Lauts. Domenico Ghirlandajo. Vienna, 1943, pp. 42–43, 56, fig. 105, attributes it to Ghirlandaio and dates it about 1488; suggests that it may have been executed after an earlier sketch or study if the name of Francesco Sassetti in the inscription correctly identifies the subject.

Florence Edler De Roover. Letter to Beulah Dimmick Chase. November 20, 1944, dates it to the late 1460s, when the older Teodoro Sassetti would have been seven to nine years old.

Millia Davenport. The Book of Costume. New York, 1948, vol. 1, p. 284, no. 768, ill. p. 283 (cropped).

Raymond De Roover. The Medici Bank: Its Organization, Management, Operations, and Decline. New York, 1948, pp. 90–91, ill. opp. p. 62, identifies the boy as the older Teodoro and attributes the picture to the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio, crediting Richard Offner for suggesting that it was painted in the 1480s, mostly by an assistant, after an early original by the master.

F[rederick]. M. Godfrey. "The Apotheosis of Childhood in the Renaissance." Connoisseur 128 (January 1952), pp. 156–57, ill., dates it 1488 and compares it to the Louvre portrait; tentatively suggests that Ghirlandaio may have painted it from a drawing made earlier in the life of Francesco Sassetti.

Art Treasures of the Metropolitan: A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1952, p. 225, no. 89, colorpl. 89, attributes it to Ghirlandaio, identifies the boy as the older Teodoro, and dates it 1468–70.

Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School. London, 1963, p. 76.

Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Florentine School. New York, 1971, pp. 133–35, 137, ill., attribute it to Ghirlandaio, date it about 1485–89, and state that it probably represents Francesco Sassetti with the younger Teodoro; observe areas of extensive repainting that were probably part of 1927 restoration; indicate that the inscription is not of the same period as the painting, and that the landscape shows the participation of Ghirlandaio's assistants.

Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 83, 517, 608.

Bernard Berenson. Looking at Pictures with Bernard Berenson. New York, 1974, pp. 188–89, ill.

Eve Borsook and Johannes Offerhaus. "Storia e leggende nella Cappella Sassetti in Santa Trinità." Scritti di storia dell'arte in onore di Ugo Procacci. 1, Milan, 1977, p. 307 n. 34, identify the city in the background as Geneva.

Eve Borsook and Johannes Offerhaus. Francesco Sassetti and Ghirlandaio at Santa Trinità, Florence: History and Legend in a Renaissance Chapel. Doornspijk, The Netherlands, 1981, pp. 23, 27, fig. A, attribute it to Ghirlandaio and call it "a wistful rendering" of Francesco and the older Teodoro as they would have looked in about 1466; tentatively suggest that Sassetti's lowered eyes may be a sign of mourning, and that the landscape view of Geneva may include the Oratory of our Lady built there at Sassetti's expense.

Colin Simpson. Artful Partners: Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen. New York, 1986, pp. 212, 294 [excerpt published in Connoisseur 216 (October 1986), p. 128, ill. p. 131 (color); British ed., "The Partnership: The Secret Association of Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen," London, 1987], states that Bache bought it for $350,000 on the recommendation of Berenson.

Charles M. Rosenberg. "Virtue, Piety and Affection: Some Portraits by Domenico Ghirlandaio." Il ritratto e la memoria: materiali. 2, Rome, 1993, pp. 189–90, 194 nn. 47–48, fig. 14, attributes it to Ghirlandaio and suggests that it may have been painted as an idealized posthumous memorial to Francesco Sassetti, who died in 1490.

Dominique Thiébaut in "Un chef-d'œuvre restauré: le 'Portrait d'un vieillard et d'un jeune garçon' de Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–1494)." Revue du Louvre 46 (June 1996), pp. 47, 53 n. 46, fig. 6.

Christopher Fulton. "The Boy Stripped Bare by His Elders: Art and Adolescence in Renaissance Florence." Art Journal 56 (Summer 1997), pp. 31, 39 n. 1, fig. 1, attributes it to Ghirlandaio and dates it about 1485.

Jean K. Cadogan. Domenico Ghirlandaio: Artist and Artisan. New Haven, 2000, pp. 188, 277–79, no. 47, pl. 259, attributes it to Ghirlandaio and dates it about 1485; states that it "lacks the striking emotional connection of the Louvre panel".

Oliver Garnett. "The Letters and Collection of William Graham—Pre-Raphaelite Patron and Pre-Raphael Collector." Walpole Society 62 (2000), pp. 153, 316, no. d127, fig. 172.

Ronald G. Kecks. Domenico Ghirlandaio und die Malerei der Florentiner Renaissance. Munich, 2000, p. 110 n. 189, pp. 111, 409, fig. 274, attributes it to a follower or imitator of Ghirlandaio.

Meryle Secrest. Duveen: A Life in Art. New York, 2004, pp. 251, 443, reports that Michele Lazzaroni was responsible for the repainting of Francesco's face and the loss of figures in the background; dates it about 1478–89.

Paula Nuttall in Memling's Portraits. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. Ghent, 2005, p. 78.

Frank Zöllner. Sandro Botticelli. Munich, 2005, p. 53.

Nancy Edwards in Art and Love in Renaissance Italy. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2008, pp. 275–76, no. 127, ill. p. 275 (color), fig. 109 (infrared reflectogram detail), dates it about 1488, perhaps on the occasion of Sassetti's departure for Lyons, adding that the purse at Sassetti's belt is an "article of dress [that] appears frequently in paintings of the period depicting scenes of travel"; suggests that the work may not have been able to be painted from life, which could explain the idealized features.

Jacqueline Marie Musacchio. Art, Marriage, & Family in the Florentine Renaissance Palace. New Haven, 2008, pp. 49, 270 n. 288, fig. 49 (color).

Gert Jan van der Sman in Ghirlandaio y el Renacimiento en Florencia. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid, 2010, pp. 45, 276, 279 n. 2, fig. 8 (color).

Everett Fahy in The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini. Exh. cat., Bode-Museum, Berlin. New York, 2011, pp. 158–59, 161, no. 42, ill. (color) [German ed., "Gesichter der Renaissance: Meisterwerke italienischer Portrait-Kunst," Berlin, 2011], dates it about 1490 and identifies the boy as the second Teodoro.

Patricia Rubin in The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini. Exh. cat., Bode-Museum, Berlin. New York, 2011, pp. 11, 16, 21, 23 [German ed., "Gesichter der Renaissance: Meisterwerke italienischer Portrait-Kunst," Berlin, 2011, pp. 12, 16, 21–23].

This picture is frequently compared with another double portrait by Ghirlandaio of an old man and a young boy in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (R.F. 266).