Giovanni Battista Naldini

Giovanni Battista Naldini (Fiesole 1537-1591 Florence) Madonna and Child, oil on panel, 88 x 70,5cm, framed, We thankProfessoressa Mina Gregori, Florence, forsuggesting the attribution to Naldini for the present painting.Alternative attributions to Girolamo Macchietti and FrancescoMorandini have been suggested. This interestingpainting is a work from the last period of Florentine Mannerism.Naldini created a symbiosis of the different stylistic directionsof the Florentine Cinquecento, merging them into anindividual and very personal oeuvre. He was one of the mostimportant members of a group of artists who decorated, directed by Giorgio Vasari, the “Studiolo” of GrandDuke Francesco I. de’’’’’’’’Medici in Florence. The decoration of thisroom was one the most prestigious commissions of the period. Thepresent painting is stylistically influenced not only by Mannerismbut by the classical forms of the High Renaissance as well. Themost important artists working in the “Studiolo” besidesNaldini, were Alessandro Allori, NiccoloBetti, Santi di Tito and Jacopo Zucchi. Naldini’’’’’’’’s style isstrongly influenced by Pontormo and Vasari, and also byAndrea del Sarto. He adopted Vasari’’’’’’’’s forms and Pontormo’’’’’’’’seccentric movements; on the other hand he broke with the Florentinetraditions in so far as he, one of the founders of theAcademia del Disegno in Florence, preferred colour todrawing. Giovanni Battista Naldini, one of the Medicicourt painters, was one of the most importantrepresentatives of the last generation of FlorentineMannerism. Specialist: Dr. Alexander Strasoldo

Giovanni Battista Naldini (Fiesole 1537-1591 Florence) A standing bearded man with a subsibiary study of a head of a youth(recto); A fragmentary sketch of figures (verso) black chalk (recto); pen and brown ink (verso), watermark encircleddevice 7 7/8 x 5 3/8 in. (20.1 x 13.4 cm.) Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 16 January 1985, lot7. Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 12 January 1990, lot 40. Jak Katalan Charitable UniTrust.

Lot Description Giovanni Battista Naldini (Fiesole c. 1537-1591 Florence) Lorenzo de Medici, after Michelangelo black and red chalk on brown prepared paper 11 x 6 7/8 in. (276 x 173 mm.) Lot Condition Report I confirm that I have read this Important Notice and agree to itsterms. View ConditionReport Provenance Sir Joshua Reynolds (L. 2364). W. Mayor (L. 2799). Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 21 November 1974, lot17. Literature R. Rosenberg, Beschreibungen und Nachzeichnungen der SkulpturenMichalengelos, Munich, 2000, p. 239, no. NZ 342. Lot Notes After Michelangelo's marble sculpture of Lorenzo de Medici(1449-1492) carved in the late 1520s for the Medici Chapel in SanLorenzo, Florence. Naldini made several drawings afterMichelangelo's sculpture, including another in black and red chalkin the Albertina, Vienna (inv. 378; see Rosenberg, nos. NZ 327-342for all drawings by Naldini after sculpture in the MediciChapel).

description provenance sir frederick lucas cook, 2nd bt., (1844 - 1901), doughty house, richmond, thence by descent to his son; sir herbert frederick cook, 3rd bt., (1868 - 1939), doughty house, richmond, thence by descent to his son; sir francis ferdinand maurice cook, 4th bt., (1907 - 78), doughty house, richmond; his sale, london, sotheby's, june 25, 1958, lot 12, to agnew's; with thos. agnew and sons, london; anonymous sale, london, sotheby's, april 8, 1981, lot 100, to french and company. literature and references t. borenius, a catalogue of the paintings in the collection of sir frederick cook, bart., 1913, vol. i, p. 114, no. 99, (as by parmigianino); l. fröhlich-bume, in burlington magazine, vol. xlvi, london 1925, p. 88, (rejects attribution to parmigianino); m. w. brockwell, abridged catalogue of the pictures at doughty house, richmond, london 1932, p. 68, under no. 99, (as attributed to parmigianino). catalogue note giovanni battista naldini's career is marked by a high degree of artistic independence and originality. he was jacopo pontormo's leading student and artistic heir, and traveled between rome and florence throughout his career. the present panel is a superb example of naldini's dense compositions, in which the figures are strongly delineated in contour. this picture was purchased at the turn of the 20th century by sir frederick cook, son of sir francis cook, 1st baronet and owner of doughty house (see provenance). it hung for more than fifty years in the garden gallery at doughty house, on the wall facing the windows, where it was surrounded by paintings of the italian school by such masters as annibale carracci, giorgione, paolo veronese and jacopo tintoretto (see m.w. brockwell in literature). the cook collection was formed in the 1840's, when sir francis cook (1817-1901) was traveling on the continent and began purchasing ancient sculptures and some italian pictures. later in his collecting career, sir francis received advice from sir charles robinson, who had been surveyor of pictures for queen victoria. at his death, sir francis' painting collection was bequeathed to his elder son, frederick, who carried on the family's collecting tradition by adding the present picture, among many others, to the collection. oil on panel

pen and brown ink and wash on paper washed pink PROVENANCE Padre Sebastiano Resta; John, Lord Somers, his numbering lower center : m157 and attribution to Cesare Nebbia (on the mount); H. S. Olivier (L.1373) EXHIBITED Indiana, University of Notre Dame and Binghamton, University Art Gallery, State University of New York, The Age of Vasari , 1970, cat. no. D11, reproduced; New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, Sixteenth Century Italian Drawings: Form and Function, 1974, cat. no. 31, reproduced; Oberlin College, Allen Memorial Art Museum, et al ., From Studio to Studiolo , 1992, cat. no. 33, reproduced LITERATURE AND REFERENCES Catherine Monbeig-Goguel, Vasari et son temps, Paris 1972, p. 91, under cat. no. 96; Roseline Bacou and Françoise Viatte, Dessins italiens de la Renaissance , exh. cat. Paris, Louvre, 1975, under cat. no. 35 CATALOGUE NOTE This drawing is a preparatory study for the lower half of the Ascension of Christ , an altarpiece painted by Naldini before 1576 for the church of Santa Maria delle Carmine in Florence. The painting, once on the main altar of the Chapel of Saint Agnes, was irreparably damaged in a fire in 1771. The commission was initially awarded in 1564-65 to Maso da San Friano, by Elena Ottonelli for the Compagnia di Santa Agnese (hence the presence of the two female saints). Maso died, however, in 1571, having prepared only the final drawing. Naldini inherited the commission and made use of Maso's design, known today through a modello and four further studies, all in the Uffizi, Florence (see Peter Cannon Brookes, 'Three Notes on Maso da San Friano,' in the Burlington Magazine , vol. 107, April 1965, pp. 195-196, figs. 32-36). Although the painting by Naldini is now lost, an oil modello has survived (fig. 1) which was first attributed to Naldini by Philip Pouncey and was acquired in 1964 by the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The present drawing compares closely with the only other known study by the artist for this composition, now in the Louvre, which is executed in red chalk and wash and was first attributed to Naldini by Roseline Bacou. It was Catherine Monbeig Goguel ( loc. cit .), who recognized the connection with the lost altarpiece by Naldini and suggested that the Louvre drawing is a first idea for the lower part of the painting. She also discussed the present study, and the differences in technique between the two drawings. The suggestion made by Larry Feinberg (in the 1992 Oberlin exhibition catalogue, op. cit. ) that the Louvre study anticipates the present one seems very plausible. Our drawing reveals Naldini's more pictorial qualities in the quick and dramatic use of ink and wash on the attractive washed paper.