Raphael's 'Madonna Dei Garofani' Rediscovered Author(S): Nicholas Penny Source: the Burlington Magazine, Vol
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Raphael's 'Madonna dei garofani' Rediscovered Author(s): Nicholas Penny Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 134, No. 1067, (Feb., 1992), pp. 67-81 Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/884991 Accessed: 28/04/2008 07:07 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=bmpl. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We enable the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org NICHOLAS PENNY Raphael's 'Madonna dei garofani' rediscovered* THERE are numerous versions of Raphael's Madonna dei by a defect in the preparation of the gesso ground, across garofani (the Madonna of the pinks). Many of them are ob- the right leg and belly, and especially in the thigh, of the viously copies and in this century none has been generally infant Christ and there are numerous pin-sized losses here.3 acknowledged as an original work by Raphael. Yet most There has been some blistering in the dark background scholars agree that such an original must have existed. areas beside Christ's head and belly and there are half a Moreover the very abundance of the copies (see Appendix) dozen small losses here and a few elsewhere, all evident in testifies to the composition's fame. The version which was the photograph of the painting taken when it was being probably most esteemed in the first half of the last century cleaned (Fig.4). is that in the collection of the Duke of Northumberland The medium is almost certain to be predominantly oil, (Fig.3). In August last year the Duke generously agreed although the painting's small size and excellent preservation to its being taken to the National Gallery, London for close prevented any sample being taken to verify this. The examination. The subtlety and assurance of the modelling narrow strips of painted surface concealed by the frame and the delicacy and solidity of the handling, qualities dif- show that the green of the curtains was originally more ficult to discern when the painting hung in the corridor at brilliant and that the tone of the blue sky has very slightly Alnwick Castle, became more apparent in the conservation altered. Other versions and prints support the conjecture studio, and the evidence revealed by both X-radiography that the blue robe over the Virgin's left shoulder was once and, above all, infra-red reflectography, which will be more easily distinguished from the dark background and presented in this article, dispelled any residual doubts that the contrast was clearer between the edge of the that the original painting had been rediscovered. It was curtain above the top of her head and the wall behind. In clear too, and clearer still after the picture was cleaned by the distant landscape the horizon line continuing under Herbert Lank in October and November 1991, that it the rock to the left of the tower is now visible - a revision, had survived in exceptionally good condition. or at least a procedure, improbable for a copyist.4 Slight The Alnwick Castle Madonna dei garofani is painted on a alterations to the outline of the cheek and chin of Christ panel 8 mm. thick. The back (Fig.2), which has been are also visible. The surprising touch of pale blue in the polished, exhibits the very close grain of a fruitwood such Virgin's robe beside her right hand may not have been as cherry (used by Raphael as a support for the Transfigur- intended to be so apparent.5 Shell gold was used for the ation). ' A border varying from 6 mm. (at left of the lower, haloes, which are now inconspicuous; their chief lines are and right of the upper, edge) to 1 mm. (on the sides no longer complete. Close examination reveals a few sup- towards the top) has been left unpainted but is covered plementary discontinuous concentric lines in the Virgin's with the gesso ground. Such a border is unusual in Raphael's halo. small panel paintings only in its irregularity.2 There is a The Madonnadei garofani must have been painted shortly vertical split approximately in the centre of the lower half before Raphael left Florence for Rome, probably in 1507 of the panel, passing through the back of the Virgin's or 1508. The Large CowperMadonna of 1508 (Fig.6) seems hand and through the lower leg of the infant Christ, and to develop the composition in reverse, with the figures to either side of this there are several finer and shorter enlarged, varied in action and given an outdoor setting.6 vertical cracks. The paint has been disturbed, probably The date 1508 is also found on a painting at Wilton, per- *The painting will be the subject of a special display at The National Gallery Roman agency 'della antichita e pittura', perhaps licensing the export. It has been between 12th February and 29th March. This has been sponsored by Hiscox wrongly supposed that identical seals on the canvas of Bellini's Feast of the Gods Syndicates Ltd, underwriters,and Blackwall Green Ltd, brokers,both of Lloyds were applied soon after acquisition of the painting by the Camuccini in the late of London, who have also supported the cost of the colour plate illustrating this eighteenth century; see D. BULLand j. PLESTERS:The Feast of the Gods: Conservation, article. The Duke of Northumberland has generously agreed to the painting Examination, and Interpretation,Washington [1990], p.21. on loan at The remaining National Gallery until March 1993. 2The lack of register between painted image and support might suggest that the The author is grateful to the Duke of Northumberland, the Duchess of painting was not made on an easel. The border of the Dream of a Knight is widest Northumberlandand Lady Victoria Cuthbertfor their hospitalityand encourage- along the lower edge - averaging 0.25 cm. - and finer elsewhere. That of the ment. Caroline Armitage helped to organise the preliminary investigation of Garvagh Madonna is 1 cm. along the lower edge and 0.25 cm. elsewhere. Borders the at The painting National Gallery. Colin Shrimpton, archivist at Alnwick are often excluded from reproductions of Raphael's paintings, but see H. VON with the of the Castle, helped investigation family papers. Examination of the SONNENBURG: Raphael in der Alten Pinakothek, Munich [1983], frontispiece (for the painting in The National Gallery was made possible by the Chief Restorer, Canigiani Madonna) and fig. 74 (for the Esterhdzy Madonna). Martin I Wyld. am indebted to discussions with him, with Jill Dunkerton and 3This is a problem also in parts of Raphael's Ansidei Madonna and in The with Herbert Lank. I am most grateful to Rachel Billinge who constructed the National Gallery's Portraitofayoung man by Botticelli - for which seeJ. DUNKERTON, infra-red reflectogrammosaics with great care and skill, and tojaynie Anderson S. FOISTER, D. GORDON and N. PENNY: Giotto to Diirer, London and New Haven who shared her knowledge of the Camuccini collection. [1991], p.164, fig.215. ' The size and condition of the panel prevented any sample of the wood being 4This, perhaps the single most visible piece of evidence for the autograph status taken for It is that analysis. possible the wood was polished in the early nineteenth of the painting, was surprisingly not mentioned by Cavalcaselle (see note 44 century to eradicate evidence of the owner prior to its acquisition by Vincenzo below). Camuccini. A circle in lightly incised the wood is intersected by left and right 5Herbert Lank has suggested to me that Raphael had reserved an area here for edges, perhaps reflecting a plan for a tondo which was subsequently abandoned. the flowers. The three all in identical are found on all seals, wax, the paintings at Alnwick 6D.A. BROWN:Raphael and America, Washington [1983], pp.157-58. I am grateful which came from the Camuccini collection. One of these is the seal of Vincenzo, to Dr Brown for discussing with me the relationship between the Madonna dei another that of and perhaps Pietro, the third (with the Colosseum) of an official garofani and the Large CowperMadonna and the relationship of both with Leonardo. 67 RAPHAEL'S 'MADONNA DEI GAROFANI' haps reflecting a composition by Raphael or by a close fol- lower, which reverses the Madonnadei garofani and alters the nature of the interior setting (Fig.5).7 Telling comparisons can be made with Raphael's Belle jardinierein the Louvre also of 1507 - for the head of Christ with the Borghese Entombmentalso of 1507 for the landscape and architec- ture- and, perhaps most strikingly, with the St Catherine, generally dated 1508- for the Virgin's hair, eyebrows and mouth (Figs.8 and 10).