MICHELE TOSINI, CALLED MICHELE DI RIDOLFO DEL GHIRLANDAIO | PIETÀ WITH TWO ANGELS

Private collection, Europe.

This painting by Michele Tosini is inspired by Michelangelo's drawing of the Pietà for Vittoria Colonna now in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.¹ Although it is not certain if Michelangelo ever made a painted version of the composition, other artists such as Francesco Brini, Ludovico Buti, Lavinia Fontana, and Tosini did.

The theatrical gestures of the figures, as well as the intensity of the colors, place this work later in Tosini's career. Tosini often produced multiple variants of a single composition, and there is a larger autographed version of this painting in the Museo Civico Ala Ponzone, Cremona.²

We are grateful to Carlo Falciani for endorsing the attribution to Michele Tosini after first-hand inspection.

1. Black chalk on paper, 28.9 by 18.9 cm., inv. no. 1.2.o.16. See https://www.gardnermuseum.org/experience/collection/10775.

2. Oil on panel, 95 by 73 cm., inv. no. 184. See M. Marubbi (ed.), La Pinacoteca Ala Ponzone: Il Cinquecento, exhibition catalogue, Cinisello Balsamo and Cremona 2003, pp. 104-5 cat. no. 68, reproduced.