GIOVANNI BATTISTA NALDINI
CIRCA 1537-1591
24 Raising of the Son of the
Widow of Naim
r
Madonna and Child with
Saints
v
Pen and brown ink, brown wash, white heightening, and
black chalk on blue paper (recto); black chalk (verso); H:
- 3 cm (8^3 / 4 in.); W: 32.5 cm (i2I3/i6in.)
88.GA.5 3
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at bottom center,
collection mark of A. P. F. Robert-Dumesnil (L. 2200);
(verso) inscribed dijacopo Palma in brown ink.
PROVENANCE: A. P. F. Robert-Dumesnil, Paris (sale,
Phillips, London, May 18, 1838, lot 754); private collec-
tion, Paris; sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, April 29 , 1986, lot
77 ; art market, London.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Gruitrooy, "A New Drawing by
Giovanni Battista Naldini," J. Paul Getty Museum Journal
17(1989), pp. 15-20.
THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE SUBJECT OF THIS DRAW-
ing is due to Gruitrooy (1989), who noted that Naldini
made a painting of the same theme—destroyed in a fire
in 1771—for Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. The
painting was executed between circa 1575, when the altar
into which it was placed was completed, and 1584, when
it was first mentioned in RafFaello Borghini's // riposo.
The painting is known through a contemporaneous de-
scription by Francesco Bocchi and a chalk drawing in the
Uffizi by Naldini (inv. 7475). The picture was very dif-
ferent from the recto of the Museum's drawing, having
as its main emphasis the widow kneeling before Christ
and asking for his intervention. By contrast the Getty
drawing shows Christ in the act of raising her son. To
account for the change in conception reflected in the two
drawings and the painting, Gruitrooy argued persua-
sively that Naldini made the Getty drawing at an early
stage—circa 1575-77—and came back to the project in
1580 , when he returned to Florence.
The black chalk sketch of the Nativity on the verso
is more easily understood. It was made as a preparatory
study for the Nativity painted by Naldini for the Cappella
Mazzinghi, Santa Maria Novella, Florence, and dated
1573. A further compositional study for the altarpiece
(Uffizi inv. 705F) is drawn in pen and ink and follows the
Getty sketch in most essentials, but it is more precisely
drawn and closer to the painting, especially in the treat-
ment of the top portion of the scene. Naldini presumably
made the verso in 1573 and then reused the sheet two
years later to make the drawing on the recto in prepara-
tion for the Santa Maria del Carmine picture.verso7O ITALIAN SCHOOL • NALDINI