Lot 159: Andrea Piccinelli, called Andrea Brescianino , Siena circa 1487 - after 1525 Madonna and child in a landscape with the infant St John the Baptist oil on canvas

oil on canvas

measurements note 109.5 by 89.4 cm.; 43 by 35 1/4 in.

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools, vol. I, London 1968, p. 66, as 'partly autograph'.

Possibly Blenheim Palace (according to 1950 sale catalogue);
Henry Harris Esq., by 1932;
His deceased sale, London, Sotheby's, 25 October 1950, lot 183, as 'Andrea del Brescianino', where acquired by the father of the present owner for £50;
Thence by descent.

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY
We are grateful to Mr. Everett Fahy for endorsing the attribution to Brescianino following inspection of the original, and for dating the present work to the artist's time in Florence where he studied early on in his career, falling heavily under the influence of Fra Bartolommeo, Leonardo da Vinci and, in particular, Raphael; indeed, the design of the present work is heavily indebted to Raphael's Madonna del Velo, known today only through copies.υ1 Although Brescianino subsequently spent the majority of his life in Siena he appears to have kept a workshop in Florence, run by his brother Rafaello Piccinelli (fl. 1506-45). 1. See J.M. Zur Capellen, Raphael, vol. II, Münster 2005, pp. 278 ff, reproduced.