(Florence 1448–1494)
The Madonna adoring the Christ Child, with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and Saint Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata beyond,
tempera and oil on panel, laid down on panel, tondo, diam. 98 cm, framed

Provenance:
with Ehrich Galleries, New York, by 1898;
where purchased by Martin A. Ryerson (1856–1932), Chicago, 1898;
by descent to his widow Mrs. Carrie Ryerson (1859–1937), by whom it was retained from the 1933 Ryerson Bequest for personal use, until 1937;
by whom bequeathed to The Art Institute of Chicago, 1937;
their sale, Christie’s, New York, 5 June 2013, lot 50 (as Follower of Domenico Ghirlandaio);
where acquired by the present owner

Exhibited:
Chicago, The Renaissance Society, The University of Chicago, Religious Art from the Fourth Century to the Present Time, 1930, no. 19 (as Mainardi);
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Old and Modern Masters from Chicago Collections, 1935 (as Bastiano Mainardi);
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Ryerson Gift, 1938 (as Sebastiano Mainardi)

Literature:
The Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of Objects in the Museum, Part I, Sculpture and Painting, 3rd ed., Chicago 1898, p. 124, no. 191 (as Domenico Ghirlandaio);
R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, The Hague 1931, vol. XIII, pp. 222-224, mentioned in note 1 (as Mainardi);
W. R. Valentiner, Paintings in the Collection of Martin A. Ryerson, unpublished manuscript, 1932 (as Sebastiano Mainardi);
Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Ryerson Gift, vol. XXXII, no. 1, 1938, p. 3 (as Sebastiano Mainardi);
The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago. A Catalogue of the Picture Collection, Chicago 1961, p. 266 (as Sebastiano Mainardi);
H. Huth, Italienische Kunstwerke im Art Institute von Chicago, USA, in: Miscellanea Bibliothecae Hertzianae, Munich 1961, p. 516 (as Mainardi);
B. B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1972, pp. 117, 344 and 571 (as Sebastiano Mainardi);
E. Fahy, Some Followers of Domenico Ghirlandaio, New York and London 1976, p. 214 (as plausibly by Benedetto Ghirlandaio, though not entirely convincing);
C. Lloyd, Italian Paintings before 1600 in The Art Institute of Chicago. A Catalogue of the Collection, Chicago 1993, pp. 100-102, ill. (as Follower of Domenico Ghirlandaio)

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri under no. 12765 (as Bastiano Mainardi, based on Everett Fahy’s opinion).

Domenico Ghirlandaio ran a large and productive workshop in Florence that included his brothers Davide Ghirlandaio and Benedetto Ghirlandaio, as well his brother-in-law Sebastiano Mainardi from San Gimignano, and later his son Ridolfo Ghirlandaio. Many apprentices were trained in Ghirlandaio’s workshop during the late 15thcentury, including the young Michelangelo.

The active production of the workshop, and the close stylistic similarities of the artists who worked together, has caused art historians to have difficulty in attributing paintings to specific artists. The present painting has been given to Sebastian Mainardi, as well as Domenico Ghirlando himself when the work was conserved in the Art Institute of Chicago (see literature).