School of Andrea del Sarto (Florence, 1486 – Florence, 1530), St. John the Baptist

School of Andrea del Sarto (Florence, 1486 – Florence, 1530)

San Giovannino

Oil on panel, 57 x 39 cm

With frame, 67 x 49 cm

The panel depicts Saint John, recognizable thanks to his staff and red cloak that slips over one shoulder. The subject stands out full-length against a dark background, slightly broken by the sunset which reveals a mountain landscape. The Saint, still a child, is caught with his body in profile while his head is turned towards the viewer to seek his attention. His left arm is extended and grasps the stick pointed to the ground and, in a sort of chiastic correspondence, the right foot is brought forward compared to the other, as if the Saint had been interrupted in his path.

The subject takes up the features of the baby Jesus in Andrea del Sarto's Madonna with Child and Infant Saint John from the Wallace Collection in London, varying only the position of the lower limbs.

Even the pictorial mixture - here dominated by dark and contrasting colors unlike the London panel which plays on brighter colors - refers to del Sarto, especially in the particular nuanced effect, a stylistic hallmark of the master.

Dubbed by Vasari the "without errors", Andrea d'Agnolo di Francesco di Luca di Paolo del Migliore Vannucchi (Florence, 1486 - Florence, 1530), was the master of the entire first generation of "eccentrics" (Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino first and foremost ), but unlike his students he renewed the traditional repertoire in a polite manner, through the accentuation of the monumental scope of the figures, the variation of color and technique.

The London panel, as well as other Madonnas with child by Andrea del Sarto, has been variously reproduced by other artists of his circle, but also by Domenico Puligo, an artist who was a pupil of Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio but strongly indebted to del Sarto's inventions .

Therefore, it is reasonable to maintain that the present author is to be considered an artist linked to the school of Andrea del Sarto.