This recently rediscovered work is the only known example of this charming composition by Sassoferrato to have been painted on copper, and one of only a handful of works by this artist to have been executed on this support. The intimate scale, combined with the meticulous detail and smooth finish afforded by the metal surface, lend the painting a refined and jewel-like quality, marking it as a work probably intended for private devotion. Since its recent appearance on the art market the picture has been cleaned, revealing its brilliant colouring and establishing it as an important addition to the artist’s œuvre.

Famed initially as a portrait painter, particularly of ecclesiastical clients, from around 1650 onwards Sassoferrato came to specialise in the devotional images, inspired by the Marian cult of the Counter-Reformation, for which he is still best known today. Like other examples of his works, this composition is inspired by his great Marchigian forbear, Raphael, and specifically the so-called Mackintosh Madonna in the National Gallery, London (fig. 1).¹ Retaining the figural arrangement of Raphael’s design, Sassoferrato re-imagines the composition, placing his Virgin and Child against the warm tonality of a dimly lit background. The Christ Child smiles at the viewer, clinging affectionately to his mother’s neck, while she delicately supports His foot, her serene gaze cast downwards.

Though it is likely that Sassoferrato saw Raphael’s original during his time in Rome, he may have also been exposed to this composition through the The Virgin with Saints Gregory and Nicholas by Domenico Alfani (circa 1480–after 1533) in the Galleria Nazionale dell’ Umbria, Perugia, which replicates the arrangement of Raphael’s figural group.² Sassoferrato would have almost certainly seen the work given his extended stay in Perugia, where from the 1630s he was under the employ of the Benedictine convent of San Pietro, for the execution of ten canvases depicting saints for the convent's basilica (still in situ today).³

While many of the artist’s works are known in multiple autograph versions, no doubt a function of their widespread popularity, the present design is rare and exists in only three other known renditions, which are larger and painted on canvas: one in the Galleria Borghese, Rome;⁴ another sold from the collection of A. Alfred Taubman at Sotheby’s, New York, on 27 January 2016;⁵ and the third in a private collection in Candelara, Pesaro.⁶ A squared drawing of this composition, mysteriously stolen in 1965 and returned only two years ago, is in the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich.⁷ A copy of this composition, by an anonymous member of the artist’s circle is in the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo.⁸ Raphael’s celebrated design inspired at least three autograph variants which differ significantly in setting, props and details of the pose: one at Burghley House, Stamford;⁹ another from the Contini Bonacossi Collection, Florence, sold at Sotheby’s, London, on 5 December 2018;¹⁰ and a third in a private collection originally descended from the artist’s family.¹¹

Note on Provenance
John Webb was a prominent English art and furniture dealer in the mid-19th century, renowned for his contributions to the South Kensington Museum, London (which would later become the Victoria and Albert Museum). He inherited a family business in luxury trade and built his own highly successful commercial concern as an upholsterer and cabinetmaker, supplying high-quality furniture to distinguished clients such as the Marquess of Hertford and to the Palace of Westminster. He also acted as an agent for the South Kensington Museum and the British Museum, acquiring valuable artefacts such as medieval ivories and the celebrated Gloucester Candlestick. Upon his death in 1880, he left his extensive art collection to his daughter Edith who later bequeathed several paintings from his collection to the National Gallery, London, in his memory. These include Jean-Siméon Chardin's The Young Schoolmistress and The House of Cards (Portrait of Jean-Alexandre Le Noir).¹²

We are grateful to Professor Massimo Pulini for endorsing the attribution to Sassoferrato on the basis of digital images.

¹ Inv. no. NG2069; oil on panel, transferred to canvas; 78.8 x 64.2 cm.; J. Meyer zur Capellen, Raphael. A Critical Catalogue of His Paintings. Vol. II: The Roman Religious Paintings, ca. 1508–1520, Landshut 2005, pp. 77–81, no. 49, reproduced.

² Inv. no. 364; oil on panel; 173 x 147 cm.; F. Santi, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria. Vol. II, Dipinti, Sculture e Oggetti dei Secoli XV–XVI, Rome 1985, pp. 167–69, no. 161, reproduced in colour.

³ C. Galassi, ‘Pittura e devozione: “le preziosissime copie del Perugino e di Raffaello, eseguite dal Sassoferrato” per San Pietro a Perugia’, in Perugino e Raffaello. Modelli nobili per Sassoferrato a Perugia, F.F. Mancini and A. Natali (eds), exh. cat., Perugia 2013, p. 93.

⁴ Inv. no. 382; oil on canvas; 69.5 x 55.5 cm.; P. Della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, vol. II, Rome 1959, p. 124, no. 174, reproduced fig. 173.

⁵ Oil on canvas; 71.1 x 57.7 cm.; New York, Sotheby’s, 27 January 2016, lot 13, for $274,000.

⁶ Oil on canvas; 49 x 40 cm.; M. Pulini in Il Sassoferrato, un preraffaellita tra i puristi del Seicento, M. Pulini (ed.), exh. cat., Cesena 2009, pp. 114–15, no. 21, reproduced in colour.

⁷ Inv. no. 2666 Z; black pencil on blue paper; 25.4 x 19 cm.; F.M. de Lépinay in Sassoferrato: Devout Beauty, F.M. de Lepinay (ed.), exh. cat., Sassoferrato 2019, p. 90, reproduced fig. 11.

⁸ Inv. no. 58AC00387; oil on canvas; 74 x 59 cm.; F. Rossi, Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, Vol. II, Catalogo dei dipinti secoli XVII–XVIII, Milan 1989, p. 216, no. 98, reproduced.

⁹ Oil on canvas, unlined; 43 x 34.5 cm.; P. Rosazza-Ferraris in Sassoferrato 2019, p. 66, reproduced in colour fig. 7.

¹⁰ Oil on canvas; 75.4 x 61.6 cm.; London, Sotheby’s, 5 December 2018, lot 24, for £187,500.

¹¹ Oil on canvas; 100 x 75 cm.; M. Pulini in Sassoferrato 2019, pp. 210–11, no. 43, reproduced in colour.

¹² H. Wine, National Gallery Catalogues, The Eighteenth-Century French Paintings, London 2018, pp. 95–112, nos NG 4077 and NG 4078, reproduced in colour.