* Alessandro Allori Florence 1535 - 1607

Saxons of Liverpool, from whom acquired in 1964 by;
With Thos. Agnew's & Sons, Ltd., London, by whom sold in 1965 to;
A.W. Moss;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, November 25, 1966, lot 102, to Arcade Gallery for 380 Gns.;
Professor Benjamin Rowlandson, Cambridge, MA, by 1978, thence by descent in his family.

A. Pigler, Katalog der Galerie Alter Meister, 1967, p. 24;
S. Lecchini Giovannoni, Il Seicento, 1986, III, p. 31;
S. Lecchini Giovannoni, Alessandro Allori, 1991, p. 278-88, cat. no. 126;
P. Sutton, et. al, Prized Possessions.  European Paintings from Private Collections of Friends of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 1992, no. 2, pp. 121-122, reproduced pl. 4, p. 18; 
S. Lecchini Giovannoni, Magnificenza all corte dei Medici:  Arte a Firenze alla fine Cinquecento, exhibition catalogue, Florence, 1998, under no. 27, reproduced.

Lecchini Giovannoni (see Literature below) notes a document of May 24, 1593 listing among the effects in the Guardaroba Medicea three small copper panels representing  "Cristo morto nel sepolcro con due Angeli" each measuring 3/4 by 2/3 braccia (with 1 Florentine braccia being equivalent to .584m [see R.E. Zupko, Italian Weights and Measures from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century, Philadelphia 1981, p. 46], the measurements correspond almost exactly at 44 by 39 cm.).   She tentatively associates the present copper, along with two others in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (signed) and in the Seminario Patriarcale, Venice, with these pictures.  Given the similarities in size and subject, it seems rather likely these are indeed the pictures mentioned in the granducal collections.  The rather imposing and Michelangelesque form of the Christ was first utilized by Allori in a monumental altarpiece painted for Giovanni Filippo d'Ambrogio, Bishop of Olomouc (modern Czech Republic) still in situ in the Cathedral (see Lecchini Giovannoni Literature below, p. 259, cat. no 89, illustrated, fig. 200) which is dated 1583.  The small coppers instead were clearly meant for private devotion, and are meant to be more gemlike; Allori has used the opportunity to embellish the composition with rich fabrics and vessels which are lacking in the much larger canvas. 

A rather more interesting question which Lecchini Giovannoni does not delve into is why are three coppers by Allori, all of the same size and composition, recorded in the Medici collections at the same time all within the lifetime of the artist.   Given Allori's pre-eminent position at court, it seems possible that they were produced as presentation pieces for the Medici, although none of the coppers appear to have provenance before the early 20th Century.  

Professor Benjamin Rowland was a Professor of South Asian art at Harvard Univeristy and published extensively on eastern and western art.