View spreads of this book - The National Gallery Shop

FEDERICO BAROCCI
Renaissance Master of Color and Line
Judith W. Mann and Babette Bohn
With Carol Plazzotta
Saint Louis Art Museum
Yale University Press, New Haven and London

finished small cartoon he ever produced. 124 This drawing on
ocher-colored paper, which corresponds precisely to the painting
(fig. 47 and cat. 3), is truly a cartoncino per il chiaroscuro, studying
the play of light and dark perhaps more than any subsequent work
by Barocci. The artist employed a tiny brush to create fine striations
in white heightening throughout the sheet, expressing the
dramatic play of light across every form in the composition.
Barocci probably used this work both as a preparatory study
and as a presentation drawing, to obtain his patron’s approval for
the design. Although no artist before Barocci had made cartoncini
per il chiaroscuro, finished presentation drawings were common
in Italian workshop practice from at least the fifteenth century.
It makes sense that the inception of Barocci’s innovative drawing
type was rooted in a traditional category of drawing that would
have been familiar to any Italian painter. The consistently careful
54 Babette Bohn
Fig. 36. Cartoncino per il chiaroscuro for the Circumcision, 1590. Black chalk and pen and brown ink with brown wash heightened with white,
squared in black chalk, on brown paper, laid down, 43.5 x 58.5 cm. Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, Florence, inv. 818 E.
finish of the Uffizi drawing, which would soon be modified
in later cartoncini, seems closely linked to earlier Italian presentation
drawings.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, presentation
drawings, or modelli, were sometimes required by patrons who
wished to approve the design before the artist began painting. In
1485, for example, the Florentine patron Giovanni Tornabuoni
stipulated in his contract with Domenico Ghirlandaio that he
would need to approve compositional drawings before Ghirlandaio
painted his frescoes in Santa Maria Novella. 125 Sometimes presentation
drawings were submitted to the patron to secure the commission
in the first place, a probable inception for Benozzo
Gozzoli’s study for Totila’s Assault on Perugia of about 1461 (fig.
35). 126 Because such modelli were intended to provide the patron
with a clear idea of the design, they were generally detailed and
Fig. 37. Cartoncino per il chiaroscuro for the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, 1593–1603. Black chalk with
brown wash heightened with white and gray body color with some touches of pink, 39.6 x 33.8 cm.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Woodner Collection, Gift of Andrea Woodner, inv. 2006.11.4

CAT. 7. La Madonna del Gatto (The Madonna of the Cat), ca. 1575–76. Oil on canvas, 443⁄8 x 361⁄2 in. (112.7 x 92.7 cm). The National Gallery, London, inv. NG29
The Madonna del Gatto, the only easel painting
by Barocci in a British public collection, was
among the first pictures to enter the National
Gallery after its foundation in 1824. Comparable
in scale and mood to the Rest on the Return
from Egypt (cat. 4), the Madonna del Gatto is
among the most delightful and engaging of all
Barocci’s devotional pictures. It shows the Holy
Family in an atmosphere of cozy domesticity,
watching in amusement as the Infant Baptist
teases the household cat that gives the painting
its name. Giovanni Pietro Bellori referred to
the picture as a scherzo (a playful piece), aptly
emphasizing its light-hearted spirit. 1 Indeed, in
the animated warmth of the gathering, it is easy
to lose sight of the picture’s more serious devotional
message—the anticipation of Christ’s
future sacrifice. Instead, the close-up view, the
familiar domestic environment, and the protagonists’
cheerful expressions combine to create
an atmosphere of relaxed intimacy that has
direct appeal. The four figures are gracefully
arranged in a subtle diagonal rising from the cat
in the bottom-left corner, their limbs creating a
complex interplay of movement forward and
backward in space. The delicate sfumato blush
that caresses their faces, limbs, fingers, and toes
epitomizes Sir Joshua Reynolds’s observation
(quoting Plutarch) that Barocci’s figures look
“as if they fed upon roses,” a quality, along with
a perceived irreverence in the subject, not universally
favored after the painting’s acquisition
by the National Gallery. 2 The painting thus
emerged from almost complete scholarly obscurity
only in the 1960s, with research published
by Harald Olsen and Cecil Gould, reinforced
by its loan to the pioneering monographic show
held in Bologna in 1975.
The scene is set in the bedchamber of a
Renaissance palace. Through a doorway in the
background, from which a green curtain is
drawn back, an open window reveals a twilit
sky, the glow of the setting sun reflected on the
elegant stone window seat and the left-hand
wall. Seated on a low stool, with her legs stretched
out and feet comfortably crossed, the Virgin
breastfeeds the Christ Child. She has recently
lifted him from his wicker cot, for the bedcover
7
La Madonna del Gatto (The Madonna of the Cat)
is turned back and a silk pillow trimmed with
gold bears the imprint of his head. Her wicker
workbasket in the foreground contains a narrow
white cloth stretched over an embroidery
cushion, a larger cloth, and a small book with a
gold-embossed leather binding, its pages falling
open to reveal an engraved frontispiece. The
young mother cradles her baby to her breast
while embracing Saint John, perched on the
stool alongside her. Steadying himself against
the Virgin’s knee and instinctively clutching his
cousin’s chubby foot, he playfully holds up an
alarmed goldfinch, prompting the cat to sit up
on its haunches and lift its nose in the bird’s
direction. Christ pauses from suckling to watch
as directed by his mother’s gesturing hand. Supporting
himself on a low table, Saint Joseph
leans over Mary’s shoulder to enjoy the scene.
Bellori noted that Barocci painted the picture
for Antonio Brancaleoni (ca. 1532/33–1598),
who was count of Piobbico, a small stronghold
straddling a strategic mountain pass about
twenty miles west of Urbino; he also mentioned
that Brancaleoni commissioned a version in distemper
of the Rest on the Return from Egypt (see
cat. 4 and fig. 52) for his parish church. 3 Bellori’s
reliability in respect to the latter is unproblematic,
since the painting remains in situ in Santo
Stefano in Piobbico. 4 Hitherto, however, there
was no other information to support his association
of the Madonna del Gatto with Brancaleoni.
5 A newly discovered document recording
the picture’s presence in the Perugian palace of
Brancaleoni’s granddaughter in 1671 confirms
that Bellori was correct about the National Gallery
picture. 6 We shall see that the painting’s
date, coinciding with the creation of splendid
new apartments in Brancaleoni’s palace, as well
as its subject and appearance, offer much further
corroboration of the count’s patronage.
Despite his commission of two such beautiful
works from the artist in the mid-1570s, the
interesting figure of Count Antonio II Brancaleoni
has received little attention in the Barocci
literature. 7 His birthdate is unknown, but he
was probably born around 1532/33. 8 Like his
forebears, he took up arms from a young age
and was a talented horseman, fighting in many
wars, including the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. 9 In
1552, he married Laura Cappello, daughter of
the exiled Venetian poet and diplomat Bernardo
Cappello (1498–1565). 10 The young Laura
had been lady-in-waiting to Vittoria Farnese
(1521–1602), duchess of Urbino, who was
instrumental in her match with Count Antonio,
and who contributed a substantial sum to her
dowry. 11 Between 1555 and about 1569, Laura
bore Antonio fourteen children, of whom eight
sons and a daughter survived into adulthood. 12
As the eldest son of Count Monaldo di Roberto
Brancaleoni, Antonio inherited the lordship of
Piobbico in 1556, when his father was murdered
by the rival Ubaldini clan of nearby Apecchio. 13
Antonio himself was involved in a number of
murderous incidents in the defense of his family
and territory, for which Duke Guidubaldo of
Urbino reprimanded him, but penalties of exile
and confiscation of property were always
quickly rescinded, indicating a degree of favor
at the Della Rovere court. 14
Barocci’s picture must have been made for
Brancaleoni’s palace, which dominates the
medieval village of Piobbico from the top of a
small hill. In the 1470s, his great-grandfather,
Guido di Antonio I Brancaleoni (1437–1484),
had transformed it from a modest family residence
into a worthy seignorial seat on the
model of the Urbinate palace of his employer
and ally, Duke Federico da Montefeltro. 15 Count
Antonio, the patron of this picture, undertook
the next significant campaign to extend and
decorate the palace in the mid-1570s. 16 It is
exactly to this period, in which he was actively
re-establishing favor with the Della Rovere in
Urbino (see below), that Barocci’s two paintings
can be dated. The purpose of Brancaleoni’s
palace extension was to provide himself and his
consort with an elegant apartment on the piano
nobile (main floor), the finest rooms in the palace
to this day. The new suite consisted of a central
salone, or reception room, flanked by the
count and countess’s separate bedchambers,
decorated with exemplary scenes from Greek
and Roman history, respectively, each provided
with a private chapel. 17 The rooms were embellished
with stucco ceiling moldings and reliefs
145

Fig. 62. Compositional study. Black, white, and red chalk on blue paper,
21.3 x 16.9 cm. Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi,
Florence, inv. 11555 F. recto
felt any discomfort; and, by slightly turning
them here and there, they would find their
most comfortable attitude. In this way, he
experimented in finding the most natural and
least affected movements of the figure, and he
would make his sketches from these.” 58 Exactly
such a process is evident in Barocci’s studies for
the Virgin. Having established her contrapposto
pose, with the upper body facing right
and the lower body turned to the left, he proceeded
to explore the position of her legs, first
having them slightly apart, then crossed right
over left (fig. 63), finally settling on a left-overright
pose, as in cat. 7.2. In this elegant drawing,
Barocci made effective use of the yellow paper
as a midtone for the hatched shadows and
white chalk highlights. He did not bother to
develop the left forearm, knowing that it would
be concealed by the baby. But pentimenti in the
figure’s right hand (pointing at a black chalk
150 La Madonna del Gatto (The Madonna of the Cat)
feet reveal that he still remained uncertain of
these elements (areas that he continued to
modify even when he came to paint the picture).
59 After settling on the Virgin’s quite complex,
but pictorially pleasing pose, he then
proceeded to study the fall of the drapery over
her outstretched legs; at least three such studies
survive. 60 In each of these, the arrangement of
the drapery is slightly different as Barocci
adjusted it to his satisfaction.
Several chalk studies for the two children
survive. A sheet in the Uffizi contains studies
of the Baptist’s head and left arm and right armpit,
along with passages of drapery. 61 Another
sheet in the Uffizi contains a quick black chalk
sketch for the raised right arm, the bird denoted
cursorily with only a few rapid loops. 62 In a
beautiful drawing in three chalks in Berlin,
Barocci studied this arm again in more
detail, also sketching the Baptist’s right hand,
holding a more detailed animal now recogniz-
Fig. 63. Nude figure studies. Red and black chalk heightened
with white on blue paper, 24.7 x 19.5 cm. Kupferstichkabinett,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, inv. KdZ 20526 (4451) verso
able as a bird. 63 At least one study for his
legs survives. 64
Barocci worked extremely hard to achieve
the beautiful, tender expressions of the four
protagonists in the picture. He probably prepared
individual studies in colored chalks for
all the heads, but only those for the Virgin and
Christ Child are extant. 65 There are at least
three studies for the head of the Virgin. 66
Among the most ethereal of all Barocci’s head
studies is a sheet from Windsor (cat. 7.3), which
appears at once sublimely idealized and
remarkably lifelike. 67 It is conceivable that the
head was a life study of a young garzone. 68 From
this, Barocci made an intermediate study that
focuses more on the variations in the pink and
white skin tones of the face and, given the
redrawn eyes, the specific angle and placement
of the head as well. 69 He must have made this
study with the other one at hand, for they are
identical in scale and fractionally larger than
squiggle that must stand for the cat) and in the CAT. 7.2. Study for the Virgin. Red and white chalk with some black chalk on yellow paper, 79⁄16 x 61⁄4 in. (19.2 x 15.9 cm).
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, inv. KdZ 20140 (4156)

CAT. 7.6. Compositional study for Cornelis Cort’s Madonna del Gatto print (recto). Black and red chalk, heightened with white,
some outlines incised, squared by incision. [Verso: Three studies for the Virgin’s right hand. Red chalk],
121⁄16 x 97⁄16 in. (30.6 x 23.9 cm). The British Museum, London, inv. 1994,0514.55
CAT. 7.7. Cornelis Cort after Barocci, La Madonna del Gatto, State II, 1577. Engraving, 133⁄16 x 911⁄16 in. (33.4 x 24.5 cm).
Inscribed at bottom: “Di. Greg. PP.xiij ex Privil.p. an. X. Corneli. Cort fec. 1577.” Inscribed in lower margin:
“Ludit Joannes, tacitus miratur jesvs. / Utriusq notat symbolu uterq parens, / Ille refert hominem paradisj e limine pulsum, /
Quam ferat hic pulso jam meditatur opem. / Fedricus Barotius Urbinensis Inventor.” The British Museum, London, inv. V,8.159
for which there are studies on four sheets. 75 The
gesture began life as a pointing index finger
with the other fingers closed. He made several
detail drawings at this stage but in subsequent
studies began to unfurl the other fingers, ending
up painting the hand with the palm open.
In a drawing in the Uffizi, with six different
studies for the hand similar to the final position,
Barocci narrowed his focus even more
to perfect the position of the thumb. The
large number of studies for the Virgin’s hand (at
least eleven on four sheets) underscores the
importance of her gesture for the picture’s
interpretation.
Only one drawing remains to be discussed:
a subtle ricordo in the British Museum (cat.
7.6), drawn on the back of a sheet of two red
chalk sketches for the Virgin’s pointing finger.
Barocci made the ricordo as a model for Cort
(1533–1578). 76 It was long thought to be a copy,
but, despite its abraded condition, its quality is
such that scholars now rightly consider it autograph.
77 Barocci had probably made a similar
model drawing for Cort after a version of the
Rest on the Return from Egypt, from which the
printmaker produced a beautiful engraving in
the same orientation as the picture, dated 1575
(see cat. 4). Cort engraved the Madonna del
Gatto (this time in reverse) in 1577, providing a
terminus ante quem for the painting’s completion
(cat. 7.7). These are the only two paintings
by Barocci that Cort engraved, their association
being curtailed by his death in 1578. It is
not known how or even whether the two came
into direct contact. Cort was active in Venice
(1565–66 and probably 1571–72), where he
stayed in Titian’s house and produced a dozen
engravings after his paintings. Otherwise, from
1567 until his death, Cort lived mainly in Rome,
where he worked with—among others—
Barocci’s friends the Zuccaro brothers and
Girolamo Muziano. Although Cort may have
La Madonna del Gatto (The Madonna of the Cat)
155