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On the recto of this sheet there is a preparatory drawing for Fra Bartolommeo’s altarpiece in the church of San Marco in Florence. The altarpiece was painted by Fra Bartolommeo in 1509 (and is now in the Uffizi). Other drawings are in the Uffizi, the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Courtauld Institute, and elsewhere. Using black and yellow chalk, Bartolommeo traced a delicate, whimsical outline of the Virgin and Christ Child appearing on an elevated dais (stage). On a much smaller scale to the Florentine altarpiece, Bartolommeo has encapsulated the majesty and monumentality of the sacred figures. Outlines of curved soft lines and smudging on either side of the Virgin traces a mystical optical veil parted by flying cherubs who reveal the scene.
There are many differences between the composition of the present drawing and that of the picture, which has six saints instead of five, as in the drawing; the Holy Child is transferred in the picture to the Virgin's left arm, and the angel at the top of the drawing becomes in the picture a pair of flying putti, whose feet are higher than their heads.
The verso of this sheet contains a sketch of two figures and is catalogued under the same inventory number in the Barber Collection.
Title
The Madonna and Child with Saints
Date
c.1509
Medium
black & yellow chalk heightened with white on tinted paper
Measurements
H 26 x W 19.6 cm
Accession number
36.1.1
Acquisition method
purchased, 1936
Work type
Drawing
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts
University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, West Midlands B15 2TS England
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