Madonna and Child with Two Angels

reportedly the parish church, Castelfranco di Sopra, near Florence (until late 18th century); the Baglioni family, villa Baglioni, Cerreto (late 18th century–about 1903); [Stefano Bardini, Florence, until 1903; probably sold for 115,000 lire through A. E. Harnisch to Havemeyer]; Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, New York (1903–his d. 1907); Mrs. H. O. (Louisine W.) Havemeyer, New York (1907–d. 1929)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The H. O. Havemeyer Collection," March 10–November 2, 1930, no. 74 (as by Fra Filippo Lippi).

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. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, no. A340.

Arduino Colasanti. "Nuovi dipinti di Filippo e di Filippino Lippi." L'arte 6 (1903), pp. 299–302, ill., as in the collection of Mr. Harnisch, Philadelphia; attributes it to Filippo Lippi and dates it slightly before the Uffizi version; believes that the foreground angel reveals the collaboration of Fra Diamante; provides provenance information.

Arduino Colasanti. "Two Unpublished Pictures by Fra Filippo and Filippino Lippi." Connoisseur 7 (1903), pp. 232–33, ill.

Salomon Reinach. Répertoire de peintures du moyen age et de la renaissance (1280–1580). Vol. 4, Paris, 1918, ill. p. 492 (engraving), illustrates it as by Filippo Lippi and as in the Harnisch collection.

Raimond van Marle. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. Vol. 10, The Renaissance Painters of Florence in the 15th Century. The Hague, 1928, pp. 432–34, discusses it among versions of the Uffizi painting, noting that it "belonged, and perhaps still belongs, to the collector Harnisch of Philadelphia".

Lionello Venturi. Letter. February 24, 1929, writes that "my book about the Italian paintings in America would be imperfect without your Filippo Lippi, Bronzino and Paolo Veronese's paintings" [although in fact this picture is included in neither the Italian (1931) nor the English (1933) edition of this book].

Georg Gronau. Letter to Bryson Burroughs. June 5, 1930, attributes it to Lippi; wonders whether the oval shape is original.

H. O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. n.p., 1931, pp. 6–7, ill., as by Lippi.

Lionello Venturi. "Nella collezione Nemès." L'arte 34 (May 1931), p. 263, discusses the group of pictures that follow the Uffizi prototype.

Collections Marczell von Nemes: Catalogue des tableaux. Salle Tonhalle, Munich. June 16, 1931, p. 9, under no. 13, attributes it to Lippi and dates it after the Uffizi painting and before the version in the Nemes sale.

Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 104, lists it as an early, ruined work by Botticelli.

Bernhard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936, p. 90.

Carlo Gamba. Botticelli. Milan, [1936], p. 87, fig. 1 [French ed., (1937), p. 93, fig. 1], calls it the first and most faithful of Botticelli's variants after Lippi's Uffizi painting; states that the oval format is the result of damage to the work.

Jacques Mesnil. Botticelli. Paris, 1938, pp. 13–14, discusses its connection with the Uffizi painting, leaving the attribution open.

Roberto Salvini. Tutta la pittura del Botticelli. Milan, 1958, vol. 1, p. 67, pl. 125 [English ed., "All the Paintings of Botticelli," New York, 1965, vol. 2, p. 75, pl. 125], includes it among works attributed to Botticelli, but states that since he has not seen the painting, he cannot make an accurate judgment.

Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. New York, 1961, pp. 113, 115, 121, 123, describes the Havemeyers' acquisition of this work, as by Lippi.

Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School. London, 1963, vol. 1, p. 37.

Gabriele Mandel in The Complete Paintings of Botticelli. New York, 1967, p. 85, no. 1, ill., attributes it to Botticelli and dates it 1464 or later.

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. 93–94, ill., catalogue it as by a Follower of Fra Filippo Lippi and call it "apparently a fragment of a larger composition"; find the angel on the extreme right very similar to works from Francesco Botticini's middle period, but add that the ruined condition of the painting makes a definite attribution difficult; state that "although many elements might suggest that it is by Botticelli in his early period, the treatment of the paint is not characteristic of him".

Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 34, 331, 607, as by Botticelli.

Ronald Lightbown. Sandro Botticelli. Berkeley, 1978, vol. 2, p. 11, under no. A1, mentions it as a version of a painting in the Pinacoteca dello Spedale degli Innocenti, Florence, which he tentatively calls an early work by Botticelli.

Nicoletta Pons. Botticelli: catalogo completo. Milan, 1989, p. 54, no. 1, ill.

Caterina Caneva. Botticelli: catalogo completo dei dipinti. Florence, 1990, pp. 20, 141–42, no. 1A, ill., includes it among works of uncertain attribution.

Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. Ed. Susan Alyson Stein. 3rd ed. [1st ed. 1930, repr. 1961]. New York, 1993, pp. 113, 115, 121, 123, 321–22 nn. 162, 167–68.

Susan Alyson Stein in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 234, pl. 230.

Gretchen Wold in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 351, no. A340, ill.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 25, ill., as Attributed to Botticelli.

Miklós Boskovits in Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. Washington, 2003, pp. 148–51 nn. 16, 21, fig. 2, discusses it in conjunction with two other versions (National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Spedale degli Innocenti, Florence), calling all three early works by Botticelli and placing the MMA painting chronologically after the Washington work (which he dates probably just before 1465) and before the Florence picture.

The composition is closely related to that of a painting by Fra Filippo Lippi in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence (no. 1598). Several other pictures based on the Uffizi composition exist, including two especially close to The Met's work: Spedale degli Innocenti, Florence, and National Gallery of Art, Washington.