Inscription: Inscribed (on Saint John's scroll): ECCE AGN[US DEI]
Katherine S. Dreier, Milford, Conn. (by 1951–d. 1952; as 17th-century Italian)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Florentine Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum," June 15–August 15, 1971, no catalogue.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 50.
John Shearman. Letter. November 1, 1965, identifies a drawing in the Uffizi (no. 6438F), which he dates 1529–30, as a study for this painting.
John Shearman. Letter. March 25, 1965, states a strong feeling that it is by Bronzino and dates it about 1529–30.
Janet Cox-Rearick. Letter to Claus Virch. March 2, 1968, judging from a photograph, agrees with Shearman's attribution of it to Bronzino.
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. 208–9, ill., observe that it is closely related in style to the early work of Bronzino and to works of such minor Florentine Mannerists as Girolamo Macchietti and Mirabello Cavalori; place it in the middle of the sixteenth century or slightly earlier.
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 223, 339, 609.
Sydney J. Freedberg. Letter to Everett Fahy. May 1972, concedes reluctantly that it must be by the young Bronzino.
Craig Hugh Smyth. Letter to Everett Fahy. May 16, 1972, says the impression is not that of Bronzino, although details are like him.
John Shearman. "The Drawings of Pontormo." Art Bulletin 54 (June 1972), p. 211, calls it the best version, but not necessarily the original, of a Madonna, Child, and Saint John the Baptist by Bronzino, for which the Uffizi drawing is a study; dates the painting about 1535.
Valentino Pace. Letter to Robert Simon. October 5, 1976, judging from a photograph, believes it is a composition of Bronzino's executed by his workshop, but without his assistance; dates it to the 1570s.
Bozena Steinborn. "Obraz Malarza Florenckiego XVI Wieku w Muzeum Narodowym we Wroclawiu." Biuletyn Historii Sztuki 41, no. 1 (1979), pp. 58–60, 62, 64, fig. 5, publishes an example of this composition in the National Museum at Wroclaw that had been entirely overpainted in the nineteenth century and was recently cleaned to reveal what the author believes is a work of the young Bronzino; describes our painting as a faithful replica and illustrates it with a tentative attribution to Bronzino.
Anna Matteoli. "Un dipinto perduto e tre pittori." Scritti di storia dell'arte in onore di Roberto Salvini. Florence, 1984, pp. 427–31, fig. 1, attributes it to Maso da San Friano as a copy of a lost original by Bronzino; dates it about 1559–60, suggesting that the original was probably painted about 1551–52 and may have represented Eleonora da Toledo and her two sons Ferdinando and Garzia; notes that another copy, here attributed to Santi di Tito (about 1566–67), is in the Museo d'Arte Sacra in San Miniato al Tedesco.
Anna Matteoli. "Una S. Famiglia di Maso da S. Friano." Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 29, no. 2/3 (1985), pp. 390, 395 n. 3, mentions the attribution she published in Ref. 1984.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 38, ill., as "Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist".
This picture appers to be based on a drawing in the Galleria degli Uffizi (no. 6438F) that has been attributed to Bronzino by Janet Cox-Rearick (The Drawings of Pontormo, 1964, no. A55) and by Craig Smyth.
There are two known versions of this painting: one attributed to Bronzino in the National Museum, Wroclaw, Poland (see Steinborn 1979), and a copy attributed to Santi di Tito in the Museo d'Arte Sacra of San Miniato al Tedesco (see Matteoli 1984).
Perino del Vaga (Pietro Buonaccorsi) (Italian, Florence 1501–1547 Rome)
ca. 1524–26
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