Saint John the Baptist Bearing Witness | Workshop of Francesco Granacci | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

Gallery LabelThis panel concluded the series to which the adjacent picture belonged. It shows Saint John the Baptist preaching. The two Pharisees at the left gesture towards the advancing figure of Christ. A work of great distinction, the picture is in many respects superior to the companion panel and must be by another artist. Collaborations of this sort were common in the Renaissance. A tentative attribution has been made to Raffaello Botticini, whose later works, however, never attain this quality. The affinities some of the figures show with the Doni Tondo of Michelangelo further point up the stature of the piece. Michelangelo and Granacci were friends and fellow pupils in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio.

NotesThis picture depicts the moment when the Baptist recognizes Jesus Christ as the Son of God and says "Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

The work formed part of a series of panels, probably made as decoration for the walls of a room in a private home, depicting the story of the life of Saint John the Baptist. Other works in the series are "Scenes from the Life of Saint John the Baptist" (MMA; 1970.134.1), "The Infant Saint John the Baptist Being Carried to Zacharias" (Cleveland Museum of Art; 44.91), and "The Youth of Saint John the Baptist" (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; 2783). Zeri [see Ref. Zeri and Gardner 1971] suggests that a Baptism of Christ (formerly Gerini collection, Florence; destroyed 1944) also formed part of the series, which likely included scenes of the dance of Salome and the beheading of the Baptist as well.

Provenancethe Tornabuoni family, Florence; [Samuel Woodburn, London, until after 1850; bought from a descendant of the Tornabuoni family; sold to Ashburnham]; Bertram Ashburnham, 4th Earl of Ashburnham, Ashburnham Place, Battle, Sussex (after 1850–d. 1878; cat., 1878, as by Ghirlandaio); Bertram Ashburnham, 5th Earl of Ashburnham, Ashburnham Place (1878–at least 1894; sold to Donaldson); [Sir George Donaldson, London; sold to Robinson]; Sir Joseph B. Robinson, Cape Town (by 1923–d. 1929; his sale, Christie's, London, July 6, 1923, no. 41, as by Ghirlandaio, bought in); his daughter, Ida Louise Robinson, Princess Labia, Cape Town (1929–d. 1961); her sons, Prince and Count don Giuseppe Labia and Count don Natale Antonio Labia (1961–70; sale, Sotheby's, London, June 24, 1970, no. 40, as by Close Circle of Francesco Granacci, to MMA)

Exhibition History

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "The Robinson Collection," 1958, no. 20.

Cape Town. National Gallery of South Africa. "The Sir Joseph Robinson Collection," 1959, no. 5.

Kunsthaus Zürich. "Sammlung Sir Joseph Robinson, 1840–1929: Werke europäischer Malerei vom 15. bis 19. Jahrhundert," August 17–September 16, 1962, no. 3.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 15, 1970–February 15, 1971, no. 188b.

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

References

Catalogue of the Very Celebrated & Valuable Series of Capital Pictures . . . Formed . . . by . . . the late Samuel Woodburn, Esq. . . . . Christie's, London. June 9 and 11, 1860, p. 19, under no. 77.

Ashburnham House catalogue. 1878 [see Ref. Waterhouse 1958].

Bernhard Berenson. The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance. New York, 1896, p. 115.

Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 266.

Bernhard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936, p. 228.

"The Robinson Pictures." Connoisseur 142 (November 1958), p. 96, no. 20, ill. p. 95.

Alfred Scharf. "The Robinson Collection." Burlington Magazine 100 (September 1958), p. 300, fig. 3.

Horace Shipp. "Treasures of the Robinson Collection: Some Problems of Attribution." Apollo 68 (August 1958), p. 40.

E[llis]. K. Waterhouse. The Robinson Collection. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. London, 1958, pp. 15–16, no. 20.

Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School. London, 1963, vol. 1, pp. 98–99.

"Text." Foreign Schools Catalogue. 1, Liverpool, 1963, pp. 83–84, under no. 2783.

Christian von Holst. "Francesco Granacci als Maler." PhD diss., Freie Universität, Berlin, 1968, p. ?.

Christian von Holst. Letter to Everett Fahy. August 3, 1970.

Christian Von Holst. "Three Panels of a Renaissance Room Decoration at Liverpool and a New Work by Granacci." Annual Report and Bulletin of the Walker Art Gallery Liverpool 1 (1970–71), pp. 32–37, fig. 13.

Everett Fahy. "Florentine Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum: An Exhibition and a Catalogue." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 29 (June 1971), p. 438, ill.

Edmund P. Pillsbury. Florence and the Arts: Five Centuries of Patronage. Exh. cat., Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, 1971, unpaginated, under no. 12.

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. 181–86, ill.

Christian von Holst. Francesco Granacci. Munich, 1974, pp. 24–25, 132–35, 175, 194, 199–200, no. 182, figs. 18, 145–46 (overall and details).

Anthony M. Clark in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1965–1975. New York, 1975, p. 89.

Edward Morris and Martin Hopkinson. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool: Foreign Catalogue. [Liverpool], 1977, text vol., pp. 86–87, under no. 2783.

Hugh Brigstocke. Italian and Spanish Paintings in the National Gallery of Scotland. [Edinburgh], 1978, p. 63, fig. 10 (detail).

M. E. D. Laing. "Francesco Granacci and Some Questions of Identity." Metropolitan Museum Journal 24 (1989), pp. 153–66, fig. 4.

Anne B. Barriault. "Spalliera" Paintings of Renaissance Tuscany: Fables of Poets for Patrician Homes. University Park, Pa., 1994, pp. 87, 96–97, 156–57, no. 16.3, fig. 16.3.

Lucinda Hawkins Collinge in The Dictionary of Art. 13, New York, 1996, p. 280.

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