5-Franceschini:JWCI 7/3/11 10:32 Page 137 THE NUDES IN LIMBO: MICHELANGELO’S DONI TONDO RECONSIDERED* Chiara Franceschini he round painting known as the Doni tondo (Fig. 1), now in the Uffizi Gallery, Tis the only existing panel painting completed by Michelangelo, whose authorship has never been questioned. There is also a general consensus that Michelangelo painted it for a friend, Agnolo Doni. The tondo is, nevertheless, controversial in many other respects. Michelangelo is thought to have painted it when he was in Florence in either 1504 or 1506,1 but the dates of both the commission and the execution of the work are, so far, undocumented. Furthermore, its iconography presents some decided novelties, namely the unusual pose of the Virgin and the even stranger presence of five nude figures in the background. These and other details have been subjected to many interpretations.2 The painting, however, still lacks an explanation which brings all its elements together and which is fully consistent with both its genre and its function. This article is based on the assumption that a closer investigation of the personal and devotional context in which the painting was produced, and of Doni family history, might shed new light on the making of the tondo, and perhaps also on its controversial date. Several scholars have indeed already insisted on both the private character and the devotional function of this work.3 Nevertheless, they have not really questioned the traditional reading of the painting, which (as we shall see) is not entirely consistent with the function of a painting of this kind—that is, a Marian tondo. Following this line of enquiry, I propose that the study of other pictures which are possibly related to the Doni tondo, in genre or iconography, may prove fruitful. Some other tondi of the Virgin, produced in Florence and in Tuscany at the end of the fifteenth and in the * A first version of this paper was delivered in Florentine archive abbreviations: 2004 to the History of Art and Classical Archaeology ASF = Archivio di Stato; ASMF = Archivio di S. Seminar in the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa; a Maria del Fiore; BNCF = Biblioteca Nazionale revised one was presented to the Director’s Seminar Centrale; Carte Poggi = Istituto Nazionale del at the Warburg Institute in 2009. I am most grateful Rinascimento, Carte Poggi. for all the comments offered on both those occasions. 1. M. Hirst and J. Dunkerton, The Young Michel - For suggestions and criticism over time, and for help angelo: The Artist in Rome 1496–1501, London 1994, p. in the writing of the article in its present form, I 10 (and see further below). am especially indebted to Jenny Boyle, Francesco 2. See e.g. R. Stefaniak, Mysterium Magnum: Caglioti, Gian Mario Cao, Peter Faune-Saunders, Michelangelo’s Tondo Doni, Leiden and Boston 2008, Carlo Ginzburg, Richard Goldthwaite, Michael with references to most of the previous literature. Hirst, Charles Hope, Jill Kraye, Christopher Ligota, The commentary by P. Barocchi to her edition of G. Elizabeth McGrath, Francesco Mores, Alessandro Vasari, La vita di Michelangelo nelle redazioni del 1550 e Nova, Adriano Prosperi, Salvatore Settis, Paul Taylor del 1568, 5 vols, Milan and Naples 1962, ii, pp. 239–44, and Tabitha Tuckett. For help with the images I would remains a fundamental guide to the critical history of like to thank in particular Ian Jones and Antonio Quat- the painting. trone, as well as Giuseppe Marcocci, Alice Tavoni, and 3. Among them R. J. M. Olson, The Florentine the staff of the Berenson Photograph Archive. Tondo, Oxford and New York 2000, pp. 219–26; A. Hayum, ‘Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo: Holy Family and Family Myth’, Studies in Iconography, vii/viii, 1981/82, pp. 209–25. 137 JOURNAL OF THE WARBURG AND COURTAULD INSTITUTES, LXXIII, 2010 5-Franceschini:JWCI 7/3/11 10:32 Page 138 138 MICHELANGELO’S DONI TONDO sixteenth centuries, show elements which are apparently unrelated to the devotional theme. Moreover, the backgrounds of a few Florentine Renaissance paintings of the Virgin share with Michelangelo’s the image of nude or seminude bodies in a bright landscape. Similar figures are found not only in two round paintings by Luca Signorelli and in particular in his so-called Medici Madonna, which has been considered a prece- dent of the Doni tondo since Burckhardt, but also in the Carondelet altarpiece by Fra Bartolomeo and Mariotto Albertinelli—a painting which is not usually associated with the Doni tondo, but which may deserve a closer investigation from our perspective.4 I. A ‘tondo di Nostra Donna’ Let us start with a few familiar points of reference. We have no unquestionably reliable source on the painting until the late 1530s,5 when the so-called anonimo Magliabechiano (who wrote between c. 1537 and c. 1542) mentions a ‘tondo di Nostra Donna’ by Michelangelo ‘in casa Agnolo Doni’—a rich producer, dyer and merchant of woollen cloths who died in 1539.6 Ten years after his death, Anton Francesco Doni (a Doni from a different branch of the family) recommended viewing the same masterpiece, ‘un tondo d’una nostra donna in casa d’Agnol Doni’ to his friend Alberto Lollio who was going to Florence.7 Not until the first edition of Vasari’s Lives (1550) do we find a lengthy description of the painting. Vasari describes the pose of the Virgin, who is acknowledged as the main figure of the composition (‘un tondo di pittura che dentrovi una Nostra Donna etc.’). In the 1568 edition, the description is unchanged.8 By this time, however, Vasari 4. I am grateful to Carlo Ginzburg for having A Study of Four Families, Princeton 1968, pp. 180–81; drawn my attention to this painting. J.-F. Dubost, La France italienne, XVIe–XVIIIe siècle, 5. There is an earlier mention of the tondo in a Mayenne 1997, pp. 202–03, 246, 250–51, 402. letter from Antonio Mini to Michelangelo, of 2 Jan. 6. Anonimo Fiorentino, Il codice Magliabechiano cl. 1531/32. Mini reported a rumour that Michelangelo’s XVII, 17 contenente notizie d’arte sopra l’arte degli antichi Doni tondo had been sold for a huge sum to a merchant e quella de’ Fiorentini da Cimabue a Michel angelo Buonar- and banker, who planned to resell it for a profit. This roti, ed. C. Frey, Berlin 1892 (repr. 1969), p. 114, with has always been considered a fausse nouvelle but none regard to Michelangelo Buonarroti: ‘Nella pittura uno the less attests to the esteem attached to the tondo tondo di Nostra Donna in casa Agnolo Doni’. On already by this time. Mini, from Lyon, to Michel- Agnolo see the information provided by A. Cecchi, angelo in Florence: ‘Michelangniolo charis simo … . E’ ‘Agnolo e Maddalena Doni committenti di Raffaello’, vostro tondo 〈c〉he voi faciesti p〈er〉 Angniolo Doni in Studi su Raffaello, ed. M. Sambucco Hamoud and l’à n〈c〉hompero Anttonio Gondi più di schundi M. L. Strocchi, Urbino 1987, pp. 429–39 (430–33). dungientto 200, e pensa di 〈c〉hanvarne asai tesoro, in 7. Anton Francesco Doni to Alberto Lollio, 17 modo credo a ongni modo farmi [sic] qual〈c〉he pro’ di Aug. 1549, from Venice: ‘Post scritta: sopra tutto fatevi chapitale’ (Il carteggio di Michel angelo: edizione postuma mostrare un tondo d’una nostra Donna in casa di G. Poggi, ed. P. Barocchi and R. Ristori, 5 vols, d’Agnol Doni, et vi basti solo che io dica gl’è di mano Florence 1965–83, iii, pp. 365–66, no. 844). It is known del maestro de’ maestri’. In Anton Francesco Doni, that Michelangelo gave his pupil Antonio Mini a few Disegno del Doni, partito in più ragionamenti, ne’ quali si drawings and cartoni before Mini left for France: could tratta della scoltura et pittura, Venice 1549, p. 49 (quoted he be referring in this letter to a preparatory cartoon? from the facs. edn, ed. and comm. M. Pepe, Milan The possible existence of a cartoon for the Doni tondo 1970); also in G. Bottari and S. Ticozzi, Raccolta di is mentioned by Hirst, Michelangelo and his Drawings lettere sulla pittura, scultura ed architettura, 8 vols, Milan (as in n. 5), pp. 72, 75–76. On Antonio Gondi (1486– 1822–25, iii, p. 347. 1560), merchant and banker in Lyons for Cardinal 8. ‘Venne volontà ad Agnolo Doni, cittadino Ippolito d’Este, see J. Corbinelli, Histoire généalogique fiorentino, amico suo, sì come quello che molto si dilet - de la maison de Gondi, 2 vols, Paris 1705, ii, pp. 1–9; R. tava aver cose belle, così d’antichi come di moderni A. Goldthwaite, Private Wealth in Renaissance Florence: artefici, d’avere alcuna cosa di mano di Michele 5-Franceschini:JWCI 7/3/11 10:32 Page 139 CHIARA FRANCESCHINI 139 © ANTONIO QUATTRONE 1. Michelangelo, Virgin and Child with St Joseph, St John the Baptist and Five Nude Youths (the Doni tondo), panel (diam. 120 cms) in its original frame (diam. 172 cms). Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi Agnolo; per che gli cominciò un tondo di pittura, ch’è pitture in tavola, ancora che poche siano, è tenuta la dentrovi una Nostra Donna, la quale, inginocchiata più finita e la più bella che si truovi. Finita che ella fu, con amendua le gambe, alza in su le braccia un putto la mandò a casa Agnolo coperta; e per un mandato e porgelo a Giuseppo, che lo riceve; dove Michele con essa, con una polizza chiedeva settanta ducati per Agnolo fa conoscere, nello svoltare della testa della suo pagamento. Parve strano ad Agnolo, che era asseg- madre di Cristo e nel tenere gli occhi fissi nella somma nata persona, spendere tanto in una pittura, se bene bellezza del figliuolo, la maravigliosa sua contentezza e’ conosceva che più valesse: e disse al mandato che e lo affetto del farne parte a quel santissimo vecchio, bastavano XL, e gliene diede; onde Michele Agnolo il quale con pari amore, tenerezza e reverenzia lo piglia, gli rimandò indietro, mandan dogli a dire che cento come benissimo si scorge nel volto suo senza molto ducati o la pittura gli riman dasse indietro.