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Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and Two Putti (recto); Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and a Putto (verso)

1505–6(?)
Not on view
This sheet likely served as an exploratory idea for a composition rather than a preparatory study for a particular painting. This drawing sheds light upon Fra Bartolomeo’s practice of employing wooden models or puppets, revealed in the Virgin’s unarticulated hands and the arm of the Child which is truncated at the wrist. In his biography of the artist, the sixteenth-century biographer Giorgio Vasari stated that "in order to depict draperies and weapons and other such things," Fra Bartolomeo "had a life-sized wooden model made which had movable joints; and this he clothed with real draperies, from which he painted the most beautiful things, being able to keep them in position as long as he wished, until he brought his work to perfection."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and Two Putti (recto); Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and a Putto (verso)
  • Artist: Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) (Italian, Florence 1473–1517 Florence)
  • Date: 1505–6(?)
  • Medium: Pen and brown ink, touches of brown wash, heightened with white (partly oxidized), over traces of black chalk, on tinted paper; partial tracing of figures from the verso (recto); Pen and brown ink over black chalk (verso)
  • Dimensions: 7 3/8 x 6 7/16 in. (18.7 x 16.3 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
  • Object Number: 1975.1.271
  • Curatorial Department: The Robert Lehman Collection

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Approach to a Mountain Village with Horsemen on the Road, Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) Italian, Pen and brown ink, traces of black chalk; mounted on an album page
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The Martyrdom of Saint Paul, Taddeo Zuccaro Italian, Pen and brown and gray ink, brown wash, over black chalk, heightened with white, on buff paper.
The Martyrdom of Saint Paul
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Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist, Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) Italian, Oil and gold on wood
Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist
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