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Lot Essay
Long associated with the workshop of Andrea del Sarto and previously published with an attribution to the master himself, this arresting depiction of Saint Catherine of Alexandria was correctly ascribed by Federico Zeri to Jacopino del Conte, one of Del Sarto's most distinguished pupils (loc. cit.). Towards the end of Del Sarto's career, his thriving workshop included artists who would become luminaries in their own right, such as Rosso Fiorentino, Jacopo Pontormo, and Agnolo Bronzino. Jacopino del Conte was among these burgeoning talents, and, like them, forced to develop an independent practice after Del Sarto's death in 1530 and the subsequent dissolution of the studio.
The composition of the present picture is based on a cartoon for the gracefully posed figure of Saint Julia that occupied the lower right quadrant of Del Sarto's imposing Sarzana altarpiece (destroyed), a commission undertaken by the master in 1528 which was described in detail by Vasari, also then a member of his workshop. In his recent study of Jacopino del Conte's oeuvre, Andrea Donati (loc. cit.) has pointed out that a panel in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan (inv. Nap. 413), showing the same figure in the guise of Mary Magdalene, must also have been based on Del Sarto's obviously much admired cartoon. Donati singles out the present Saint Catherine of Alexandria for special attention, suggesting that it could have been painted by Jacopino while he was still in Del Sarto's workshop, its cool grace and technical finesse distinguishing the young artist among a constellation of budding stars. Alternatively, it might have been executed in the years just after Del Sarto's death, the young Jacopino using the venerable cartoon to commend himself to a Florentine patron. It is certainly likely that the Saint Catherine was made in Florence during Jacopino's formative years, before 1538, when he relocated to Rome and came under the influence of Michelangelo and Raphael.
After settling in the Eternal City, Jacopino joined Rome's guild of painters, the Accademia di San Luca, and went on to receive prestigious fresco and portrait commissions throughout the rest of his prominent career. The present work, in which the full, smoothly modeled physiognomy and introspective mood recall Del Sarto's finest portraits, also anticipates the paintings of Jacopino's mature years. By the late 1540s, after the death of Sebastiano del Piombo, Jacopino had become the favored portraitist of the Roman clergy and aristocracy, painting likenesses of Marcello Cervini (Pope Marcellus II), Vittoria Farnese (both Rome, Palazzo Borghese), and Pope Paul III (Rome, Santa Francesca Romana), among other illustrious sitters. His latest works, such as the Portrait of a Cardinal in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, are characterized by a formal severity and cold directness favored in Roman Counter-Reformation circles, not yet present in the rich palette and gentle mood of the Saint Catherine. Jacopino's portraits were sought-after by numerous contemporary collectors, such as the celebrated humanist Paolo Giovio (1483-1552), and his prestige became so great that in 1558 he was honored with Roman citizenship and given a home and land in the city by Paolo Giordano Orsini, first Duke of Bracciano.
According to John Shearman, a copy of the present work was formerly in the Capponi Collection, Florence (loc. cit.).
The composition of the present picture is based on a cartoon for the gracefully posed figure of Saint Julia that occupied the lower right quadrant of Del Sarto's imposing Sarzana altarpiece (destroyed), a commission undertaken by the master in 1528 which was described in detail by Vasari, also then a member of his workshop. In his recent study of Jacopino del Conte's oeuvre, Andrea Donati (loc. cit.) has pointed out that a panel in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan (inv. Nap. 413), showing the same figure in the guise of Mary Magdalene, must also have been based on Del Sarto's obviously much admired cartoon. Donati singles out the present Saint Catherine of Alexandria for special attention, suggesting that it could have been painted by Jacopino while he was still in Del Sarto's workshop, its cool grace and technical finesse distinguishing the young artist among a constellation of budding stars. Alternatively, it might have been executed in the years just after Del Sarto's death, the young Jacopino using the venerable cartoon to commend himself to a Florentine patron. It is certainly likely that the Saint Catherine was made in Florence during Jacopino's formative years, before 1538, when he relocated to Rome and came under the influence of Michelangelo and Raphael.
After settling in the Eternal City, Jacopino joined Rome's guild of painters, the Accademia di San Luca, and went on to receive prestigious fresco and portrait commissions throughout the rest of his prominent career. The present work, in which the full, smoothly modeled physiognomy and introspective mood recall Del Sarto's finest portraits, also anticipates the paintings of Jacopino's mature years. By the late 1540s, after the death of Sebastiano del Piombo, Jacopino had become the favored portraitist of the Roman clergy and aristocracy, painting likenesses of Marcello Cervini (Pope Marcellus II), Vittoria Farnese (both Rome, Palazzo Borghese), and Pope Paul III (Rome, Santa Francesca Romana), among other illustrious sitters. His latest works, such as the Portrait of a Cardinal in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, are characterized by a formal severity and cold directness favored in Roman Counter-Reformation circles, not yet present in the rich palette and gentle mood of the Saint Catherine. Jacopino's portraits were sought-after by numerous contemporary collectors, such as the celebrated humanist Paolo Giovio (1483-1552), and his prestige became so great that in 1558 he was honored with Roman citizenship and given a home and land in the city by Paolo Giordano Orsini, first Duke of Bracciano.
According to John Shearman, a copy of the present work was formerly in the Capponi Collection, Florence (loc. cit.).