Bartolomeo Schedoni

Private Collection, Santiago, Chile.

E. Negro and N. Roio, Bartolomeo Schedoni, Modena 2000, p. 86, under cat. no. 30.2 (listed under versions, based on an old photograph in the Witt Archive, "sembrerebbe in parte autografa").

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This charming picture is in excellent condition. The panel on which it is painted is unreinforced and flat. The paint layer is more or less stable, with only very slight instability in the forehead of the Madonna. The painting is dirty and certainly will clean well. On top of the dirty varnish there is a restoration in one of the folds of the Madonna's sleeve and one restoration above and below this. In her face this slight loss mentioned above, has been restored above the left eye and in the forehead above this. This picture is in very fresh and crisp condition and will look better if it were to be cleaned and retouched properly.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Bartolomeo Schedoni's highly elegant and refined manner of painting belies a rather volatile and petulant character.  His earliest biographers describe an artist who was well aware of his own aptitude, apparently leading to sometimes difficult behavior; he was banished for a time from the Duchy of Parma in 1600 and was jailed more than once.¹   It appears, however, that his patrons were also sure of the artist's talent, and Schedoni was for most of his career under the rather strict patronage and protection of two of the most sophisticated courts in North Italy: those of the Este in Modena and the Farnese in Parma.  His father had been a mascararo, or mask maker, in the employ of Duke Ranuccio I Farnese, who had recognized the son's artistic ability, and in order to nurture this, sent the young Bartolomeo off to Rome to study with Federico Zuccaro, then one of the chief painters in the city.  Only seventeen years old, Schedoni's time in Rome was very short; ill health led to his return to Parma.²  This trip appears to have made little impact on the young artist's style and it seems rather that his aesthetic was cultivated by the vast and varied collections of the Este and Farnese families, and most especially on the gentle and graceful artistic idiom of Correggio, whose works surrounded him in his adoptive city of Parma.  These tendencies seem to have been tempered by an awareness of the advances by the Carracci in Bologna, and late in his career the arrival of Lanfranco in Parma also had an impact.³

This exquisite and beautifully preserved Holy Family with the Infant Baptist exemplifies the highly finished and graceful style that Schedoni had developed under these varied influences.  It is painted on a walnut panel, one of the artist's favored supports, and depicts the Madonna at the edge of a table or ledge, holding up the Infant Christ who stands up and points towards in the direction of his slightly older cousin John, and glances backward to Saint Joseph, who is shown in severe profile. The panel allows Schedoni to create a rather polished effect in parts of the painting, such as in the fleshtones and much of the drapery, while a more painterly and loose application is featured in other details, such as in the white head scarf of the Virgin and in the fluffy beard and hair of Joseph and the Child.  The silver tonality of the light in the picture is also typical of Schedoni, almost as if were painting the scene by a strong moonlight, an effect heightened by the dense black background against which the figures are set. 

The theme of the Holy Family (in different combinations, with the Infant Baptist and other figures) was one of Schedoni's preffered subjects, and numerous examples and variations on it are extent and recorded in different collections from the 17^th Century onwards.  Although bound by contract to work for the Farnese on his return from Modena to Parma in 1607/8, Schedoni must have also entertained private commissions, or sold his work discretely to other collectors.  The composition of this Holy Family is quite close to a picture that is recorded with certainty in the Farnese collections as early as 1693 and is now in the collection of the Louvre, Paris (inv. 661).⁴  That painting is much larger and on canvas, and the figures of the Madonna and Child correspond to the present example, although an open book is placed on the ledge and a full half length figure of Saint Joseph, holding a staff, is depicted at left.  The Louvre picture has been dated by scholars to circa 1610, or to between 1610-12, in comparison with a Mary Magdalene (private collection, London) that is recorded as being delivered to Duke Ranuccio in late 1609.⁵

Much closer in type, however, is a Holy Family in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna (inv. 607).  This painting is on canvas like the Louvre picture, and is regarded as a work that is at least partially studio.⁶  Further versions are known, none of which appear to be fully autograph except for the present panel; there are examples in Montpellier (inv. P.1.202, generally regarded as a copy); in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (inv. 1558, and published as possibly by Amidano) and the University Art Collection, Stockholm (inv. 222, of modest quality); and a panel in the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo (inv. 577, which looks to be a later, feeble copy).  The present Holy Family, therefore, would appear to be the prime version of this composition by Schedoni, and should be datable not much after the Louvre picture, to circa 1610 or so. 

Note on Provenance:
The provenance of the present panel has as yet to be traced, although there are some intriguing possibilities.  Early inventories list a great number of paintings by Schedoni, vaguely described as Holy Families, or Madonnas with Saint John and the like.  The reverse of the present panel, however, bears a number of collectors seals that may prove clues as to its early history (see fig. 1).  A red wax seal in the upper left corner bears in reverse the arms and surround of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.  This suggests that the painting had at some point been part of the Bourbon collections in Naples; this would of course make sense for a painting by Schedoni as the Farnese collections arrived in Naples with the marriage of Elisabetta Farnese to Philip V of Spain (also King of Naples).⁷  That seal, however, does not appear to match those of similar marks of Bourbon and Farnese paintings in the collection of the Capodimonte.⁸ In the upper right corner of the panel there is another seal that is partially legible.  It bears the image of an umbrella above two crossed keys, the insignia of a Cardinal Camerlengo of the Catholic Church, an office held by a senior cardinal who acts as steward between the reigns of different pontiffs. Of the various Cardinals Camerlenghi, the most likely candidate for the present painting is Cardinal Silvio Valenti Gonzaga.  Valenti Gonzaga was one of the great collectors of his day (his collection was famously glorified in a famous painting by Panini, now in the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum), and amongst his effects is a painting close in description to the present Holy Family.⁹  Without further information, however, it is difficult to securely associate the present painting with either of these references.

We are grateful to Drs. Emilio Negro and Nicosetta Roio who have confirmed the autograph status of the present Holy Family on the basis of photographs.

1.   In a document of 10 March 1600, Schedoni was noted in front of the authorities for having stabbed a certain Aurelio Foghetto or Forghetti in the leg.  In a later incident in Modena on 17 February 1607, he entered the studio of the painter Antonio Manzuolo during carnival, and wearing a mask, insulted and upset the teacher and his pupils.  Arrested for disorderly conduct, he wrote a sonnet to Cesare d'Este, the Duke of Modena, asking for his release.
2.   Zuccaro wrote to the Duke on the 26 of September 1595 that Schedoni had been advised by doctors to go home: "si è amalato e di malatia che accenna lunghezza, per consiglio de medici se è risoluto mutar aria, e tornare alla sua Patria...[he is sick and of an illness that looks to be lengthy, and by the advice of doctors has resolved for a change of air, and to return to his native land]." F Zuccaro, Epistolario scelto, published in D. Miller, "A Roman sojourn of Bartolomeo Schedoni and other documents relative to the early phase of his career", in Burlington Magazine, CXV, 1973, pp. 650-2.
3.   An extremely brief mention of Schedoni in Malvasia's Felsina Pittrice names him amongst a group of "allievi e seguaci" of Annibale Carracci, all of rather minor status (see Malvasia, op cit., 1678, 1841 ed., Tome I, p. 411).  This assertion suggests that Malvasia was unfamiliar with the artist's work per se, and there is no reason to suppose that Schedoni was ever a pupil of Annibale, even if familiar with his style.
4.  The painting was mentioned in an inventory of that year as hanging in the Ducal Palace in Parma in the apartments of Maria Maddalena Farnese, the sister of the Duke.  The Louvre picture may in fact be identical with a painting of similar description which was sent by Schedoni to the Guardaroba of Duke Ranuccio in December 1609 (see E. Negro and N. Roio, Bartolomeo Schedoni, Modena 2000, p. 85, and F. Dallasta and C. Cecchinelli, Bartolomeo Schedoni, Parma 1999, p. 165).
5.  Negro and Roio (op. cit.) suggest the former while Dallasta and Cecchinelli (op. cit.) propose the latter dating.
6.  Negro and Roio consider the Bologna painting to be partially by another hand, at least in part in the figure of the Madonna and the Child (see op. cit., p. 86, cat. no. 30.2).  Dallasta and Cecchinelli list the Bologna picture under the Louvre painting, which they consider the paradigm of the composition, under a list of copie (op. cit. p. 166, under cat. no 64).
7.  There are a few possibilities listed amongst the Farnese collections, including one that is close in size to the present picture.  In an inventory of 1734, there is listed: 143. Altro quadro come sopra alto on. 6 ½ largo on. 5 1/2.  Il Bambino Gesù, la Vergine, S. Gio. Battista e S. Giuseppe, del Schedoni sull'assa (Another painting as above 6 ½ on[cie] high 5 ¼ on[cie] wide.  The Infant Jesus, the Virgin, Saint John the Baptist and St. Joseph, of Schedoni, on panel).  The measurements of that painting, using Parmese oncie, would be roughly 29.5 by 24 centimeters.
8.  We are grateful to Dr. Mariella Utili for her help in examining this seal.
9.  In two different inventories the painting is described, and slightly different measurements given. The earlier describes it as "la Famiglia Sagra, in mezza figure, in tavola, dello Schedoni" and provides measurements of about 29 by 25 centimeters.  The second inventory, apparently taken at the time of the Cardinal's death, catalogues it as representing the "Sagra Famiglia, dipinto in tavola....autore lo Schidoni. Scudi 50" with measurements of approximately 32.3 by 21 centimeters.