By the end of the fifteenth century, Florence had become the æsthetic
capital of Italy, and painters innumerable were plying their trade
within her walls. As they worked in close contact and unconsciously
reflected the influences which beset them on every side, it becomes
increasingly difficult to assign to any given artist the execution
of certain works. The task becomes even more difficult, and indeed
thankless, when one is brought face to face with such a composite
picture as the _Madonna and Child, St. Jerome and St. Zenobius_ (No.
1114), which is officially ascribed to Albertinelli (1474-1515). The
leading authority on Italian art has given it as his opinion that this
large canvas, which is inscribed:
MARIOCTI DEBERTINELLIS OPUS
Ā. D̄. M̊. DVI,
was “begun by Filippino Lippi, who laid in the St. Jerome, while
Albertinelli was assisted by Bugiardini in the execution of the rest,
especially in the child and landscape.” Albertinelli was the intimate
friend of Fra Bartolommeo, whose partner he eventually became. When it
is remembered that Albertinelli worked in the studio of Cosimo Rosselli
with Piero di Cosimo, who was the master of Fra Bartolommeo and had
some influence on Filippino Lippi, it will be recognised that it is
only the discerning critic of wide experience and consummate _flair_
that can detect the hand of various painters in a composite picture of
this kind, as Mr. Berenson has done.
The _Christ appearing to the Magdalene_ (No. 1115), which passes
officially as the work of Albertinelli, was most probably an early
picture by Fra Bartolommeo (1472-1517), who, having like Botticelli
come under the spell of Savonarola, took the vows of a Dominican in
July 1500, and temporarily relinquished the professional activity of a
painter. The Frate took up his brush again and, while working between
1509 and 1512 as the partner of Albertinelli, achieved the large and
imposing _Holy Family, with St. Peter, St. Vincent, St. Stephen, and
St. Catherine of Siena on the left, and St. Dominic, St. Francis, and
St. Bartholomew on the right_ (No. 1154). It is signed on the base of
the throne, in characteristic manner:
ORATE PRO PICTORE
MDXI
BARTHOLOME FLOREN̄.
OR. PRAE.
Four years later he also completed his Annunciation (No. 1153), which
is inscribed:
_F. Bartᵒ_ Florenˢ orⁱˢ pre.
_1515._
The introduction of St. Paul, St. John the Baptist, and St. Margaret on
the left, and St. Mary Magdalene and St. Francis on the right, tends to
destroy the full significance of the principal theme. Fra Bartolommeo’s
pictures helped to emancipate Raphael from the mannerisms he had
acquired from Perugino; they mark a late period in the Renaissance art
of Florence. He lived until 1517, when Florentine painting was on the
verge of a fast approaching decadence.
Equally influential in the art of this period was Filippino Lippi
(1457-1504), whose tendency to over-ornamentation became more
advanced in his later years. In his fascinating pictures spiritual
significance is at times sacrificed to a love of mere display, the
baroque flutterings of his draperies and the air of affectation that
he sometimes imparted to his figures. The Louvre exhibits no example
of the art of Filippino which in its latest phase shows the early,
although unmistakable, signs of decline.