Attributed to Agnolo di Cosimo, called Bronzino, and Workshop Monticelli, near Florence 1503 - 1572 Florence

Sir Thomas Neave, 1822;
Sir Richard Digby Neave, 1852, thence by descent;
Francesco Romano, until 1972 when acquired by the present owner.

London, British Institution, A Catalogue of Pictures of the Italian, Spanish, Flemish and Dutch Schools, 1822, no. 177, (as Perino del Vaga);
London, British Institution, A Catalogue of Pictures of the Italian, Spanish, Flemish and Dutch Schools, 1852, no. 19, (as Perino del Vaga). 
Warsaw, The Royal Castle, Opus Sacrum, April 10 - September 23, 1990, no. 24;
Liechtensteinische Staatliche Kunstsammlung, Vaduz, Opus Sacrum, February 15 - September 20, 1991, no. 24.

E. Safarik, Catalogo Sommario della Galleria Colonna in Roma, Rome 1981, p. 42, under no. 33, as an autograph version identified by Federico Zeri;
A.S. Labuda and G. Briganti in J. Grabski, ed., Opus Sacrum, exhibition catalogue, Vienna 1990, pp. 144-147, cat. no. 24.

"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 presumably poplar panel, with quite an old cradle that has recently been supplemented by a heavy wax moisture barrier between the bars behind. There are apparently two joints, but neither has opened all through: one comes up from the base through the foot of the Madonna, and the Child's body, and another runs down from the upper background through the shoulder of St. John, with a few other minor cracks, although these all appear quite stable. Some of the craquelure seems rather high in places such as on the forehead of the Madonna but is in fact completely firm. There was however evidently fine flaking over many areas in the past, and in both a previous restoration and quite recently there has been much careful detailed retouching across many parts. The rich build up of the dark madder under drapery of the Madonna was especially vulnerable to flaking as were the impasted deeper blue folds, and there are tiny pointillist retouches across much of the flesh painting, with slightly wider patches on the shadowy temples of the Madonna and in her neck. St John's rose is entirely retouched. Nevertheless much fine paint remains intact and overall the painting has effectively retained the high finish characteristic of Bronzino. 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."

The composition follows that of Bronzino's slightly narrower signed work in the Colonna collection, Rome.¹  The present variant, which was not exhibited in public from 1855 to 1990 and remained therefore unknown to scholars, was re-discovered and mentioned by Federico Zeri as an autograph work in Safarik's 1981 catalogue of the Colonna collection.²  The painting was subsequently featured in Opus Sacrum, an exhibition at the Royal Castle in Warsaw in 1990 and, in 1991, at the Liechtensteinische Staatliche Kunstsammlung, Vaduz (see Exhibited), where it was catalogued as by Bronzino. More recently scholars have cast doubt on the attribution, both Janet Cox-Rearick and Everett Fahy considering it a product of Bronzino's studio; Mr Fahy has indicated, however, that stylistically the painting is consistent with the artist's output at the end of his career, so that an attribution to the aged Bronzino himself should not be entirely ruled out. Another version, considered a copy by all who have published it and inferior in quality to both the Colonna work and this, is in the Galleria Nazionale d'arte Antica, Rome.  

The attribution of the Colonna painting itself has been open to debate throughout the 20^th century; in 1911 F. Goldschmidt published it as autograph,³ dating it to the 1550s, a view shared by A. MacComb in 1928.⁴  Berenson also gave it to Bronzino⁵ but later scholars largely ignored the painting. More latterly Bracceschi (1973)⁶ listed the attribution as dubious, but the most recent publication, by M. Brock (2002),⁷ restores it to Bronzino's oeuvre, although it makes no mention of the present version.

Both the Colonna panel and the present work have been fairly unanimously dated to the latter part of Bronzino's career. Goldschmidt, Berenson, Safarik and Giuliano Briganti have dated the Colonna panel to the 1550s and MacComb to circa 1560. Having been almost certainly painted after the Colonna version, the present work, whether by Bronzino or a student, would appear to date therefore from the 1560s; the execution of the figures can in particular be associated with those of Bronzino's Angel of the Annunciation and Virgin Annunciate in the Chapel of Eleanora da Toledo (Palazzo Vecchio, Florence) from the 1560s.⁸ The design, too, is to be associated with Bronzino's mature style. The highly mannered, intertwining web of forms built along a diagonal that both runs along the surface and recedes into the space, recalls similar compositions in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow (1555-60)⁹ or the Venus, Cupid and Jealousy in the Szepmuveszeti Museum, Budapest (1550s),¹⁰ and has moved on from the more classically arranged Holy family with SS. Anne and John (Vienna, Kunstihistorisches Museum; c. 1545-6)¹¹ and Madonna and child with SS. Elizabeth and John (London, National Gallery; 1540s).¹²

1. Signed at the left margin: BROZ/ FIOR
2. See Safarik, under Literature.
3. F. Goldschmidt, Pontormo, Rosso und Bronzino. Ein Versuch zur geschichte der raumdeutung, Leipzig 1911, p. 55.
4. A. MacComb, Agnolo Bronzino. His Life and Works, Cambridge 1928, pp. 28 & 80, no. 106.
5. Berenson, under Literature, p. 44.
6. E. Bracceschi, L'opera completa del Bronzino, Milan 1973, p. 109, no. 169.
7. M. Brock, Bronzino, Paris 2002.
8. For a good reproduction see C. McCorquodale, Bronzino, New York 1981, figs. 99 & 100.
9. Ibid., fig. 78.
10. Ibid., fig. 80.
11. Ibid., fig. 74.
12. Ibid., fig. 37.