Judith W. Mann and Babette BohnWith Carol Plazzotta

Saint Louis Art MuseumYale University Press, New Haven and London

FEDERICO BAROCCIRenaissance Master of Color and Line

54 Babette Bohn

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 stria-tions 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

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.

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

finish of the Uffizi drawing, which would soon be modified in later cartoncini, seems closely linked to earlier Italian presenta-tion 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 presen-tation drawings were submitted to the patron to secure the com-mission 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

145

7

La Madonna del Gatto (The Madonna of the Cat)

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. Compara-ble 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 devo-tional message—the anticipation of Christ’s future sacrifice. Instead, the close-up view, the familiar domestic environment, and the pro-tagonists’ cheerful expressions combine to cre-ate 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 uni-versally favored after the painting’s acquisition by the National Gallery.2 The painting thus emerged from almost complete scholarly obscu-rity 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

is turned back and a silk pillow trimmed with gold bears the imprint of his head. Her wicker workbasket in the foreground contains a nar-row 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. Sup-porting himself on a low table, Saint Joseph leans over Mary’s shoulder to enjoy the scene.

Bellori noted that Barocci painted the pic-ture 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 dis-temper 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 unproblem-atic, since the painting remains in situ in Santo Stefano in Piobbico.4 Hitherto, however, there was no other information to support his associ-ation of the Madonna del Gatto with Brancale-oni.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 Gal-lery 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 fur-ther corroboration of the count’s patronage.

Despite his commission of two such beau-tiful works from the artist in the mid-1570s, the interesting figure of Count Antonio II Branca-leoni 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 Ber-nardo 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 fam-ily 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 resi-dence 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 paint-ings 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 pal-ace to this day. The new suite consisted of a cen-tral 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 embel-lished with stucco ceiling moldings and reliefs

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

150 La Madonna del Gatto (The Madonna of the Cat)

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 pre-pared 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

feet reveal that he still remained uncertain of these elements (areas that he continued to modify even when he came to paint the pic-ture).59 After settling on the Virgin’s quite com-plex, 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 arm-pit, 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-

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 contrap-posto pose, with the upper body facing right and the lower body turned to the left, he pro-ceeded to explore the position of her legs, first having them slightly apart, then crossed right over left (fig. 63), finally settling on a left-over-right 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 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)

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

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

155La Madonna del Gatto (The Madonna of the Cat)

Gatto (this time in reverse) in 1577, providing a terminus ante quem for the painting’s comple-tion (cat. 7.7). These are the only two paintings by Barocci that Cort engraved, their associa-tion 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

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 auto-graph.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

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, end-ing 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 posi-tion, 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.

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