拍品专文
This is a copy by Sassoferrato, with variations, after Raphael's Madonna del Libro, also known as the Conestabile Madonna, painted while he was in Perugia in circa 1503-4 (now in The Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, inv. no. GS 252). Another version of the same composition, but of octagonal form, by Sassoferrato is in the Louvre, Paris (inv. no. MR402). While the Louvre picture remains very close to Raphael's prototype, the Cook picture has some significant variations, particularly in the background. Raphael's landscape is reminiscent of the countryside around Perugia, especially in his depiction of the snow-capped Monte Tezio in the distance on the far right of the picture. Sassoferrato, however, freely adapts his model, substituting a row of trees for the mountains on the right, while on the left the trees are more mature and covered in foliage.
Copying works by earlier masters was common practice among Italian artists of the seventeenth century; not just for their own instruction, but also to supply a growing clientele with a taste for small-scale devotional works. Sassoferrato was very active in this field, producing a wide range of copies, not only after Raphael but also after Antonio da Fabriano, Guido Reni, Albani and the Carracci, among others, all of remarkably sustained quality. Although they were no doubt produced in response to the increasing demand from a variety of patrons, these copies, and the choice of prototype, reveal much about Sassoferrato's own development and artistic influences (for a discussion of this, see F. Russell, op. cit.).
The present picture was probably painted in the 1630s while Sassoferrato was engaged in producing a number of works for the Benedictine convent church of San Pietro at Perugia. Raphael's painting was at that point still held in private hands in the city (it remained in Perugia, formerly in the collection of the Alfani family into the early seventeenth century, and then in the Conestabile della Staffa collection, into the late eighteenth century, after which it was purchased by Tsar Alexander II of Russia in 1871). Clearly Sassoferrato had access to a number of private collections at this time, which provided him with a wide variety of works for the purposes of executing high quality copies that appealed to both him and his patrons.
Copying works by earlier masters was common practice among Italian artists of the seventeenth century; not just for their own instruction, but also to supply a growing clientele with a taste for small-scale devotional works. Sassoferrato was very active in this field, producing a wide range of copies, not only after Raphael but also after Antonio da Fabriano, Guido Reni, Albani and the Carracci, among others, all of remarkably sustained quality. Although they were no doubt produced in response to the increasing demand from a variety of patrons, these copies, and the choice of prototype, reveal much about Sassoferrato's own development and artistic influences (for a discussion of this, see F. Russell, op. cit.).
The present picture was probably painted in the 1630s while Sassoferrato was engaged in producing a number of works for the Benedictine convent church of San Pietro at Perugia. Raphael's painting was at that point still held in private hands in the city (it remained in Perugia, formerly in the collection of the Alfani family into the early seventeenth century, and then in the Conestabile della Staffa collection, into the late eighteenth century, after which it was purchased by Tsar Alexander II of Russia in 1871). Clearly Sassoferrato had access to a number of private collections at this time, which provided him with a wide variety of works for the purposes of executing high quality copies that appealed to both him and his patrons.