The National Inventory of Continental European Paintings


Artist	Attributed to Boccaccino, Boccaccio (Italian painter, before 1466-1525)
Previous attributions	Previously attributed to Previtali, Andrea (Italian painter, ca. 1470-1528)
Title	Virgin and Saints with a Donor
Date earliest	about 1510
Date latest	about 1515
Material	oil on panel
Measurements	71.1 x 106.7 cm
Description	The blue-eyed, golden haired infant Jesus and his mother gaze directly at the viewer. Jesus clasps a goldfinch to his breast. According to legend, a goldfinch pulled out one of the thorns from the crown of thorns at Christ's crucifixion and its plumage was splashed with Christ's blood. The presence and signification of the bird as a symbol of Christ's redeeming sacrifice is emphasised by Mary's gesture. Surrounding the Virgin and Child are St John the Baptist carrying a scroll and a cross, St Nicholas of Bari balancing three balls upon a book, a female saint and the archangel Raphael. Most of Boccaccino's work was executed during the period 1496-1518. This sacra conversazione is much influenced by contemporary Venetian painters, notably Giovanni Bellini. This composition is close to a similar one in the Palazzo Doria, Rome (no. 558) dated by Puerari to about 1510.
Subject	religion (Holy Family, St John the Baptist, St Nicholas of Bari, Archangel Raphael, female saint)
Collection	Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Current accession number	1957P11
Previous accession number(s)	P.11´57
Acquisition details	Purchased from P. & D. Colnaghi Co. Ltd. 1957.
Provenance	By descent from his parents to Michael Tennant (?); Michael Tennant Esq. of Loch-na-bo sale, Christie's, 23 November 1956, lot 46 as The Madonna and Child, enthroned with Saints John the Baptist and Nicholas of Bari, a female Saint, an archangel and the donor by Andrea Previtali, bought by Colnaghi.
Principal exhibitions	Primitives to Picasso, London, Burlington House, 1962, cat. no. 18; Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, 1962, cat. no. 67; Old Masters from the City of Birmingham, Wildenstein and Co., 1970, cat. 7; Sacred Bond: Images of Motherhood, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 1990.
Principal publications	Connoisseur, November 1956, p. 196; Puerari, A., Boccaccino, Milan, 1957, pp. 127-8 and 230; Nicolson, B., 'Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions', Burlington Magazine, vol. 98, 1957, p. 165; Birmingham, Aperte sei sale del City Museum and Art Gallery, Emporium, vol. 129, 1959, p. 135; Heinemann, F., Giovanni Bellini e i Belliniani, vol. 1, 1962, p. 227; 'A Portfolio of Pictures', Apollo, vol. 87, 1968, p. 292; Berenson, B., Italian Pictures of the Renaissance - Central Italian and North Italian Schools, 1968, vol. 1, p. 52 Ballarin, A., Dosso Dossi. La Pittura a Ferrara negli anni del Ducato di Alfonso I vol. 1, Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara, 1995, p. 17; Foreign Paintings in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, A Summary Catalogue, 1983, no. 10, ill.
Notes	A painting by Boccaccino of the Virgin and Child holding a goldfinch against an identical curtain is in the Brera, Milan. This work can be dated to about 1510 by comparison with a similar work at the Doria Gallery, Rome (no. 558), dated by Puerari to around 1510 (p. 227 - 8). This work appears more simplified and more coarsely painted than this work. The handling of St John the Baptist is very close to that of the same figure in Madonna and Child enthroned with Saints in S. Giuliano, Venice (dated by Puerari to 1510, p. 228). The Madonna and Child group seem to have been reused by Boccaccino with small variations in the Madonna and Child group sold at Christie's, 20 March 1964, lot 66, and the head of the Archangel Raphael occurs again in the so-called Gipsy Woman (Uffizi, Florence, previously attrib. to Garofalo) illustrated by Puerari (fig. 137). Puerari dates this painting to c. 1512-13. Label on the back which shows the painting was in Italy at the end of the 19th century (letter from P. & D. Colnaghi, 2 April 1957).
Rights status	Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Author	Dr Patricia Smyth