Hanfstängl photo] [National Gallery, London
THE MADONNA AND CHILD
In the “Reliquary” at Berlin, the figures of the saints are too short. The heads are of a type which had become rather hackneyed, but the angels are lightly and crisply drawn, and it is a solid little work. The other panel at Berlin, a “Madonna and Child,” is not ascribed without dispute to Pintoricchio. Neither the face of the Mother nor the figure of the Child recall his manner, and while it is most unusual for him to paint the Virgin’s head without the shading veil, the hair here is dressed in the Italian fashion of the time, as nowhere else in his works. The Child’s feet and the Mother’s hands, however, essentially remind us of Pintoricchio; the draperies have his lines, and the gouged-out folds we find in some of his later panels, and we see the peculiar, dainty touch of fingers, holding Child and globe as if they were eggshells.
The “Madonna and Saints” of the Louvre, which Mr. Berenson assigns to Pintoricchio, Dr. Steinmann believes to be by the same painter who helped him with the “Descent of the Spirit” in the Vatican. The heads certainly differ widely from Pintoricchio’s type, but if we apply Morelli’s test, the very peculiar left hand is reproduced line for line, in the Penelope of the Petrucci fresco. Notwithstanding, it is difficult to believe this to be a genuine work of the master. The little panel in the Pitti (the “Adoration of the Magi”) is much too feeble to be anything but an imitation, and the Virgin and Child are entirely unlike his type. The others of his works which are not questioned are a “Madonna and Cherubs” at Buda-Pesth; “St. Michael,” Leipzig; a “Madonna and a Crucifix” at Milan; “St. Augustine and two Saints” at Perugia. Mr. Berenson gives him a “God the Father” at Santa Maria degli Angeli, near Assisi, and (doubtfully), the “Portrait of a Boy” at Oxford.
Hanfstängl photo] [Berlin Gallery
ST. AUGUSTINE, ST. BENEDICT, AND ST. BERNARD
(From the Reliquary)
His last known work is the very beautiful little panel in the Palazzo Borromeo at Milan. This was painted at Siena in the last year of his life, and is full of force and colour, glowing like a jewel. The background has an interesting effect of distant sunset behind trees and mountains; all the notice is concentrated on the red-robed figure and white cross of the Christ. The greens of the ground and the lengthening shadows give a more than usual depth and harmony. The group behind is confused and less well-drawn, but the peasant leading the way is evidently a study from life. On the arabesque in which the painting is set is a cartel inscribed with name and date.
