This striking and distinctive depiction of the Adoration is a keystone work of the early career of one of the most important and unique painters of the Italian Renaissance, Domenico Beccafumi. It has been integral to the reconstruction of Beccafumi’s early formation and shows the sophisticated and qualitative levels that he attained, even as a young artist.

Although this panel's correct attribution to Beccafumi has only recently been confirmed, it has always been understood to be an important example of Sienese Renaissance painting, with various art historians advancing different candidates. It was first recorded in the distinguished collection of Léon de Somzée, where it was attributed to Sodoma, one of the leading painters active in Siena during the opening decades of the 16^th century. It was called Sodoma by its subsequent owners, with the exception of Jules Bache, in whose sale it was attributed to Girolamo del Pacchia. Richard Feigen himself purchased the painting from Julius Weitzner as by Sodoma, although Roberto Longhi had suggested an attribution to Girolamo Genga, another painter active in Siena. In this, he was followed at that time by John Pope-Hennessy and Keith Christiansen. In 1988, Andrea De Marchi made a significant advancement when he grouped the Feigen Adoration with nine other paintings and three fresco fragments under the moniker “Master of the Chigi-Saracini Heroines,” christened after three panels depicting distinguished women of pagan and biblical antiquity in the Chigi Saracini collection, Siena.¹ De Marchi considered this Master to be a follower of Girolamo Genga and Domenico Beccafumi. When the painting was lent to the important Beccafumi exhibition in 1990, it was given by Fiorella Sricchia Santoro to a figure she minted the “Master of the Feigen Adoration,” based simply on her assertion that it was not close enough stylistically to De Marchi’s “Heroines” group. Another identification for this painting and a related work in a private collection (see footnote 1) was made in by Larry Kanter, who advanced the theory that the painting might be by the shadowy figure of “Capanna Senese,” an artist whom Vasari mentions together with Beccafumi in his Vita of Baldassare Perruzi.

However, the recent discovery by Andrea Giorgi of a document related dated May 1507 has provided the solution to this longstanding attributional debate. In an annotation for a number of expenses, a reference to the payment for a painting of Saint Agnes is recorded, along with the name of an artist: “Domenicho dipentore sta in chasa di Lorenso Be/chafumi per una figura di sancta Angnese fece/al Comuno ebe li. sesantatré per resto che costo/duchati dieci li. 63 sol.”² The “Lorenso Bechafumi” mentioned is Lorenzo Beccafumi, the Sienese podestà of Montepulciano, and the “Domenicho” in his household was the young Domenico di Pace, who would take his patron Lorenzo’s surname and become Domenico Beccafumi. The reference to a painting of Saint Agnes, the patron saint of Montepulciano, was recognized by Alessandro Angelini as the three-quarter length processional banner in Museo Civico e Pinacoteca Crociani, Montepulciano, which had previously been attributed to an anonymous local artist (fig. 1).³ This connection has allowed the identification of several works to this initial phase of Beccafumi’s career, when he was a recognized master and still connected to the household of his patron. These include the panels previously given to the Chigi-Saracini Master, along with a number of other works such as the cataletti panels given to the Girolamo del Pacchia and his circle in the Pinacoteca in Siena (inv. 612/613 and 118).⁴ More recently, Angelini has expanded this initial nucleus of works to include the Feigen Adoration, which he quite rightly notes belongs to the same group of paintings as the Chigi-Saracini Heroines, which he had already previously identified as by Beccafumi.

1. In addition to the three eponymous heroines at the Chigi-Saracini and the Feigen Adoration, this corpus comprised: three fresco fragments in the Princeton University Art Museum; Madonna and Child with Saint John, tondo, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin; Madonna and Child with Saint John, location unknown (formerly Sotheby’s Florence, 23 October 1974, lot 76); Madonna and Child with Saint John (variant of the above), art market, Florence; Artemisia (formerly Sotheby’s London, 24 June 1953, lot 27); fragmentary panel of Saint Michael in the Pinacoteca, Siena (inv. no. 118); and finally, a replica of the Feigen painting, with variations and with a different landscape background (formerly with Cabassi, Milan).

2. A. Giorgi, “ ‘Domenicho dipentore sta in chasa di Lorenso Bechafumi.’ Di alcuni documenti poliziani intorno al culto di Agnese Segni e ai suoi riflessi in ambito artistico (1506-1507),” in Prospettiva, January-April 2015, no. 157/158, pp. 94-95, 101, document no. 13.

3. A. Angelini, “Una ‘Sant’Agnese di Montepulciano’ di Domenico Beccafumi. Per una revisione dell’attività giovanile del pittore,” in Prospettiva, January-April 2015, no. 157/158, pp. 74-93.

4. As Angelini notes, Alessandro Bagnoli had already suggested an attribution to Beccafumi for two of these panels as early as 1988, and again at the time of the Beccafumi exhibition in 1990 (see Beccafumi e il suo tempo, pp. 78-83). The fragmentary cataletto panel (inv. no. 118) depicting St. Michael the Archangel on the had been placed by De Marchi in his Chigi-Saracini group.