Virgin and Child, known as the Madonna del Libro Artist: Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci) (Italian, 1494–1557)

ca. 1545–46

European Art

On view, 2nd floor, European Art

Pontormo was the foremost painter in Florence of the generation following Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo, and the preferred artist of the Medici dukes. This painting is the only surviving fragment of his most famous composition (the complete image is recorded in no fewer than twenty-five sixteenth-century copies) and the latest known work from the artist’s hand. Left incomplete in Pontormo’s studio at the time of his death, it was probably cut centuries later to its present size and shape.

Medium

Oil on panel

Dimensions

unframed: 31 3/4 × 25 1/4 in. (80.7 × 64.1 cm)

Credit Line

Maitland F. Griggs, B.A. 1896, Fund

Accession Number

2006.111.1

Geography

Made in Florence, Italy

Culture

Italian, Florence

Period

16th century

Classification

Paintings

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Possibly identical with a painting found in Pontormo's house at his death (January 1, 1557) and sold out of his estate in 1559 to Alfonso Quistelli, fiscal agent of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand duke of Tuscany; sold by Quistelli in 1559 to Alessandro Allori, acting on behalf of Agnolo Bronzino; sold by Bronzino and Allori to Piero Salviati, Florence, 1559; Grand duke Cosimo de' Medici, 1564. Private collection, France (sale, Jean-Claude Anaf & Associe, Lyon, Lot 215, March 25, 2001). Matteo and Marco Grassi, Paris and New York; Sotheby's, New York, January 23, 2003 (BI)


Bibliography
  • Art for Yale: Collecting for a New Century, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2007), 222, 394, pl. 209
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

religious art

Subject

Madonna and Child

Technical metadata and APIs

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