Pietro del Donzello Florence 1452 - 1509

Sir Edward Mortimer Mountain, 1st Bt. (1872-1948);
Thence by descent.

Pietro, along with his brother Ippolito (c.1456-1494), gained his name "del Donzello" after his father became a government messenger in Florence (donzello della Signoria). The brothers are documented in the land registry (catasto) of Florence in 1480, thus confirming that they were not of Neapolitan origins as had once been thought. Few altarpieces and easel paintings by Pietro have survived, and this appears to be largely due to the fact that he was principally a craftsman employed in painting standards and shields. His earliest documented commission is a standard representing An Allegory of Lombardy for the Sala dell'Udienza, Palazzo della Signoria, in 1483 (untraced), and he is also recorded as having painted a number of shields and standards (drappelloni) for the Opera del Duomo in Florence between 1503 and 1507. Though undocumented, Pietro may have accompanied his brother to Naples in 1488 to carry out fresco decorations at Poggio Reale (since destroyed).

Pietro's known oeuvre is quite small and the only surviving documented work is an altarpiece of the Annunciation in the Frescobaldi chapel, Church of Santo Spirito, Florence, painted by the artist in 1498: for a list of his works see E. Fahy, Some Followers of Domenico Ghirlandaio, New York & London 1968, pp. 220-221. That painting, like the present panel, demonstrates the overriding influence of Domenico Ghirlandaio and Lorenzo di Credi. The modelling of the figures gives them a marmoreal appearance and the detail with which the vegetation in the foreground is described finds comparisons in the works of Di Credi and in those of his followers at the turn of the century. The bold, generous folds of the Madonna's drapery are similar to those of St. Julian the Hospitaler in a picture in the Fitzwilliam Musem, Cambridge, correctly ascribed to Pietro by Everett Fahy in 1965 (reproduced in J.W. Goodison and G.H. Robertson, Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge. Catalogue of Paintings. Vol. II. Italian Schools, Cambridge 1967, pp. 49-50, plate 6). A date of execution around 1500 (or shortly afterwards) seems likely for the present work. 

The attribution to Pietro del Donzello is due to Everett Fahy after inspection of the work in the original (private communication to the owner, dated 27 August 2001).