Francesco Salviati

Virgin and Child with an Angel

c. 1535-1539
Category: 
European and American Painting, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts
This Florentine painter took his last name from Cardinal Giovanni Salviati, who became his patron after the artist arrived in Rome in 1531. The placement of the divine group in a grotto, with a landscape in the distance, recalls the work of Andrea del Sarto, who taught Salviati in Florence. The monumentality and power of the figures suggest that Salviati may have studied Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling. Frame: carved and turned wood, partly gilded. Made in 2007, after a mid 16th-century Florentine example Purchased with the support of the patrons of the Circle of the National Gallery of Canada Foundation

Provenance

by 1808/12/24 –
Cavaliere Braccio Luigi Compagni, Florence, Italy (?) [1]

Private Collection, France [2]

– 2005/07/12
Private Collection, UK [3]

2005/07/12 –

National Gallery of Canada, purchased from British private collection through Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, UK [4]

Notes

[1] A painting attributed to the school of Salviati, titled Madonna con Gesù Bambino che dorme is listed in the inventory of Cavaliere Braccio Luigi Compagni of Florence, dated December 24, 1808. The painting's dimensions are given as “br. ½ x br.1” [br.= braccio (an arm's length) = c. 70 cm], which correspond approximately with the NGC's painting [inventory of Cavaliere Braccio Luigi Compagni, dated Dec. 24, 1808, from: Archivio di Stato, Florence, Italy, (Compagni, A 74); Getty Provenance Database, Item 0048 from Archival Document I-787 (Compagni)]. In her catalogue raisonné Luisa Mortari lists only two works by or attributed to Salviati, showing the Madonna with the sleeping Christ child: the NGC work's 'twin' from the of Royal Collection at Hampton Court, UK [Mortari, Luisa. “Fancesco Salviati.” Rome: Leonardo-De Luca, 1992, cat. no. 25] and Sacra Famiglia [cat. no. 68] which is condiderably larger (163 x 140 cm).

[2] This provenance information was provided by London art dealer Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox [Accession records, NGC curatorial file].

[3] See note [2].

[4] The National Gallery of Canada purchased the work from Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox on July 12, 2005 [Accession log, NGC curatorial file] with the support of the Volunteer Circle of the National Gallery of Canada and the National Gallery of Canada Foundation Renaissance Ball Patrons, for the Gallery's 125th Anniversary.

Artist
Title
Virgin and Child with an Angel
Date
c. 1535-1539
Medium
Painting
Materials
oil on wood, likely poplar
Dimensions
112.3 x 83 cm
Nationality
Italian
Credit line
Purchased 2005 with the support of the Volunteer Circle of the National Gallery of Canada and the National Gallery of Canada Foundation Renaissance Ball Patrons, for the Gallery's 125th Anniversary
Accession number
41690

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