The Madonna and Child with Saint Joseph and Saint Bernardino of Siena, oil on canvas, 77 x 106.5 cm, framed

Provenienz:
Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 4th Duke of Sutherland (1851-1913),
Trentham Hall, Staffordshire; Christie’s, London, 24 November 1961;
Collection Berti, Oderzo, Treviso;
Collection Alexandra, Treviso.

Literature:
U. Ruggeri, Nuovi dipinti veneziani del Cinquecento, in: Arte documento, 4. 1990, p. 90.

Ruggeri compares the present painting to a group of early works by Bonifacio de’ Pitati, dated between 1520 and circa 1530, which include the Sacra Conversazione in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston; the Sacra Conversazione in the Galleria Palatina in Florence; and the Adoration of the Shepherds in the City Art Gallery in Birmingham. In particular, the present painting can be compared to the Sacra Conversazione with Mary Magdalen, Saint Francis and a Donor (M. H. De Young Museum, Saint Francisco), dated to around 1526/27, for the “sharp outline of the figures” and the “the way in which the colour was applied to the canvas...” (Ruggeri, op. cit., p. 90). In addition, the figure of Saint Bernardino closely resembles Saint Francis in the Sacra Conversazione by Bonifacio in the Louvre (Paris).

The traditional composition of the Madonna, Saint Joseph, the Franciscan Saint Bernardino of Siena and the Child is inspired by the works of Titian and Palma il Vecchio, as is typical of Bonifacio’s early works. The pose of the present Madonna derives from the Madonna in Titian’s Annunciation in the Averoldi Polyptych (Brescia, church of Santi Nazaro e Celso), while the figure of Saint Joseph recalls Palma’s types. The landscape in the background is painted here with broad brushstrokes, as well as an attention to detail.

An alternative tentative attribution to Giovanni da Asola (Asola, Mantua, documented in Venice 1512–1531) and his son Bernardino da Asola (active 1525–1550) has been proposed by Mauro Lucco for the present painting.