Niccolò Frangipane active in Venice during the second half of the 16th century

Given to the present institution approximately twenty-five years ago.

Little documentary evidence survives concerning the life of Niccolò Frangipane, who is recorded as working in Venice and the Marches during the second half of the 16th century. His oeuvre consists principally of three types of painting: religious works, many of which draw heavily from Titian's production of the 1540s and 1550s; arcadian figures, in the style of Giorgione; and light-hearted mythological or genre scenes, reminiscent of the work of Vincenzo Campi (for examples of each type, see B.W. Meijer, 'Niccolo Frangipane a Rimini, in Arte Veneta, 1970, pp. 214-17, with reproductions).

Although the present work is Venetian in character, the pose of the Madonna and Child, as well as the inclusion of the elaborate chair, is inspired by Raphael's celebrated painting of La Madonna della Sedia of 1513, today in the Galleria Palatina, Florence. A variant of the present composition, which was sold Milan, Finarte, 25 November 1998, lot 35, and is signed and dated 1595, depicts the same scene in an outdoor setting, with the Madonna and Child seated on a rock before a curtain draped from a tree, with Saint Joseph moved to the right side of the composition, standing behind the Infant Saint John the Baptist. Although the present work is seemingly of higher quality than the aforementioned painting, the similarity of the compositions and the almost identical signature form would seem to point to a similar date of execution, circa 1595.