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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

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Mother and Child, Figures Fighting (Study for the Rape of Dinah?), Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) Italian, Red chalk with traces of black chalk
Mother and Child, Figures Fighting (Study for the Rape of Dinah?)
Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino)
1515–17
Drapery Study for a Standing Male Figure in Profile Facing Left, Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) Italian, Black chalk, highlighted with white chalk, on tan paper
Drapery Study for a Standing Male Figure in Profile Facing Left
Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino)
1512–17
The Annunciation (recto); Faint View of Buildings (verso), Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) Italian, Pen and brown ink (kneeling angel at left), faint black chalk (the hardly legible standing figure of the Virgin at right) (recto); faint view of buildings in pen and brown ink (verso)
The Annunciation (recto); Faint View of Buildings (verso)
Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino)
1472–1517
A Small Town on the Crest of a Slope, Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) Italian, Pen and brown ink
A Small Town on the Crest of a Slope
Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino)
1504–07
Landscape (Wooded Approach to a Town), Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino) Italian, Pen and brown ink
Landscape (Wooded Approach to a Town)
Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolomeo di Paolo del Fattorino)
ca. 1508

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