Girolamo Ramarino da Salerno Born in Salerno, active in Naples during the early 16th century

Don Leopoldo de Gregorio y Mesnata, Marqués de Vallesantoro y Squillace (1700-1783);
By family descent to Don Leopoldo de Gregorio, Marqués de Vallesantoro, during the mid-19th century;
By descent to his nephew Don Santiago de Pierrard Urrutia by 1911 (listed as no. 80 in an inventory drawn up on 21 October 1911 by Don Julian Jimenez, valued at 150.000 pesetas);
By descent to his son Don Fernando Pierrard Zabala;
By direct descent to his children, the present owners.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a poplar panel, which has been thinned and cradled, perhaps in the early twentieth century. There is fairly serious old worm damage in the right half of the panel, with fragile paint over semi hollows in places. Various old cracks run slanting down the centre through the Madonna, with others towards the right down through the Child to the base. The panel on the left side is markedly stronger, and there is less damage. The discoloured old varnish and multiple surface retouchings probably date from the same period as the cradle, around the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century, but there appears to be an earlier fairly extensive reworking of the surface. There are many tiny flaked or chipped flecks in the surface that were retouched during the old restoration, but much of this upper paint surface appears to be reinforced or sometimes broadly repainted, as in the curtain behind. The blue drapery behind the feet of the Child has various darkened retouchings, but appears original, as perhaps is the beautiful Leonardesque sleeve. The state of the underlying painting has been muffled over quite a long period, and is hard to fathom without tests. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

We are grateful to Dr. Pietro Marani for proposing the attribution to Girolamo Ramarino da Salerno on the basis of a colour transparency. Dated by him to circa 1515-20, the painting was probably executed in or around Naples, where the artist spent much of his working career.

The pose of the Madonna and Child derives from the upper central tier of a large altarpiece by Girolamo Ramarino and Cesare da Sesto representing The Baptism of Christ, flanked by Saints Gregory the Great, Benedict, Peter and Paul, with the Madonna and Child in Glory, painted for the main altar of the Abbey of the Trinity, Cava dei Tirreni, and today in the Museo della Badia della Santa Trinità.¹ The altarpiece was commissioned by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of the Trinity from Ramarino, a local painter, on 3 September 1514, although by March 1515 Cesare da Sesto is recorded as collaborating on the project. Surviving documentation relating to the commission indicates that Ramarino was responsible for the overall supervision of the altarpiece (including the payment of artisans employed on the project and the acquisition of ultramarine and other materials) whilst Da Sesto (referred to as 'Milante') took on the role of artistic director, being responsible for the overall compositional design. Stylistic analysis suggests that the principal panels of The Madonna and Child and Baptism of Christ (as well as part of Saint Gregory) were painted by Da Sesto, whilst the predella and the three other saints depicted in the side panels are by Ramarino.²

The present painting therefore in all probability derives from a design by Da Sesto, although the composition has been adapted by Ramarino to suit the private devotional function of the work. The principal alterations lie in the reduction of the Virgin from full to three-quarter length and the raising of the viewpoint to eye-level, enabling the viewer to engage directly with the outward-looking Christ Child, as a result of which the foreshortening required by the dal sotto in sù perspective in the altarpiece is here omitted. The artist has also moved the Madonna and Child from the heavens, surrounded by putti, to a terrestrial (and more domestic) setting, before a draped curtain with a view reminiscent of the Lombard Cinquecento landscape tradition beyond.

Ramarino seems to have enjoyed a sustained period of patronage at the Abbey of the Trinity in Cava dei Tirreni. He continued to produce paintings for the Benedictine monks from 1514 until 1521, when his last payment is recorded (although the main altarpiece was probably finished by the end of 1515), and it seems likely that the present work was painted during that time. In this respect the painting represents a clear testament to the immediate effect that Da Sesto's style had on the work of local artists, such as Ramarino, in Naples (and Sicily). Having trained in the circle of Leonardo in Milan and subsequently moved to Rome by 1508 to work alongside Peruzzi in the Vatican Stanze, he was largely responsible for bringing the ideals of the High Renaissance to southern Italy. The composition reveals a clear fusion of the styles of Leonardo and Raphael, the facial types assimilating those of the former and the figure group being seemingly inspired by Raphael's painting of the Madonna di Foligno, today in the Vatican.³

Although it is unknown precisely when the painting entered the collection of the family of the present owners, it is believed to have belonged during the mid-18th century to their ancestor Don Leopoldo de Gregorio y Mesnata, Marqués de Vallesantoro y de Squillace, who spent much of his life in Naples. Born of humble origins, Don Leopoldo began working as an accountant for the House of Becerra in Naples. In 1742, during the war of the Austrian succession, he was appointed supplier of food to the army by King Charles VII of Naples and subsequently became Secretary of the Exchequer in 1753 and later War, Navy and Commerce. When Charles VII succeeded as King Charles III of Spain in 1759 he accompanied the King to Spain and by 1763 was appointed Secretary of the Exchequer and War as well as being in charge of the Ministry of Justice, effectively acting as prime minister of Spain. His ostentatious display of riches, which was strongly resented by the nobility and people, led to the 'Riots of Esquilache' (as he was known in Spain) on 23-26 March 1768, as a result of which he was removed by the King and exiled to Naples, where he was later appointed Spanish Ambassador to Venice, dying in that city in 1783.

1. See M. Carminati, Cesare da Sesto, Milan 1994, pp. 164-69, no. 8, with reproductions.
2. See P. Giusti & P. Leone de Castris, Pittura del Cinquecento a Napoli, Naples 1988, pp. 113-20, with reproductions.
3. Ibid., reproduced p. 89.