Fra' Bartolomeo (Baccio della Porta)
Holy Familycirca 1497

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 2

Vertical oil painting of a woman in blue and green robes, an elderly man, and a nude infant near a stone ledge, with a landscape and small figures in the distance to the right

Artist or Maker: Fra' Bartolomeo (Baccio della Porta)
Italy, Florence, 1472-1517
Title: Holy Family
Date Made: circa 1497
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Canvas: 59 7/16 × 35 15/16 in. (150.97 × 91.28 cm) Framed: 70 × 47 × 4 in. (177.8 × 119.38 × 10.16 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of The Ahmanson Foundation
Accession Number: M.73.83
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: Fra Bartolommeo’s Holy Family depicts the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph attending to the tranquil Christ Child. Mary, a central and commanding figure, assumes a statuesque pose, framed by simple architectural elements—a plinth behind her and a pedestal supporting the Child. The vertical format deviates from the typical square-shaped Florentine altarpieces commonly painted before 1500. This departure, along with the medium of canvas as opposed to wood panel, suggests that the painting might have been intended for a specific religious event, such as a processional banner, or for hanging on columns inside churches. Recent conservation efforts revealed the picture’s vibrant colors. Mary’s delicately painted face shines against the backdrop of an expansive blue sky and a convent nestled at the foot of the mountains. The figures of Saints Francis and Dominic embracing before the convent allude to a well-known dream of Dominic, in which the Madonna foretells that these two friars will lead the fight against the vices of pride, avarice, and lust—a theme that Bartolommeo revisited throughout his career.

This anti-excess campaign ultimately took an extremist form in Florence, particularly during the tenure of the Dominican reformist Girolamo Savonarola (1452−1498). Secular books, music, instruments, and art were burned in the Florentine piazza in the first bonfire of the vanities in 1497, and around that time Bartolommeo even destroyed some of his own paintings as a result of his alliance with Savonarola’s teachings. When Savonarola’s power over Florence became unmanageable, papal and civil authorities ordered his public execution in 1498. The somber tone and dignified demeanor of Bartolommeo’s Holy Family, created around the same time, sheds light on this turbulent period in Florence.

2024
Provenance: Marches Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenez de Aragona (1813–1897), Florence, by 1857, by descent to his daughter; Mariana Panciatichi, Florence (1835–1919). [Charles Fairfax Murray (1849–1919), Florence]. Count Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi (1878–1955), Rome and Florence, possibly before 1925, and by 1929; by descent in the family until 1969, to; [Eugene V.Thaw (1927–2018), New York, until 1973,
to]; [Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, sold 1973 to]; LACMA
Selected Bibliography: Schaefer, Scott, and Peter Fusco. European Painting and Sculpture in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: an Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987.
Conisbee, Philip et al. The Ahmanson Gifts: European Masterpieces in the Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.

Puro, Semplice e Naturale: nell'arte a Firenze tra Cinque e Seicento. Firenze: Giunti Editore, 2014.
Lehmbeck, Leah, editor. Gifts of European Art from The Ahmanson Foundation. Vol. 1, Italian Painting and Sculpture. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019.

Related Unframed

Fra' Bartolomeo (Baccio della Porta)
Holy Familycirca 1497

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 2

Artist or Maker: Fra' Bartolomeo (Baccio della Porta)
Italy, Florence, 1472-1517
Title: Holy Family
Date Made: circa 1497
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Canvas: 59 7/16 × 35 15/16 in. (150.97 × 91.28 cm) Framed: 70 × 47 × 4 in. (177.8 × 119.38 × 10.16 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of The Ahmanson Foundation
Accession Number: M.73.83
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: Fra Bartolommeo’s Holy Family depicts the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph attending to the tranquil Christ Child. Mary, a central and commanding figure, assumes a statuesque pose, framed by simple architectural elements—a plinth behind her and a pedestal supporting the Child. The vertical format deviates from the typical square-shaped Florentine altarpieces commonly painted before 1500. This departure, along with the medium of canvas as opposed to wood panel, suggests that the painting might have been intended for a specific religious event, such as a processional banner, or for hanging on columns inside churches. Recent conservation efforts revealed the picture’s vibrant colors. Mary’s delicately painted face shines against the backdrop of an expansive blue sky and a convent nestled at the foot of the mountains. The figures of Saints Francis and Dominic embracing before the convent allude to a well-known dream of Dominic, in which the Madonna foretells that these two friars will lead the fight against the vices of pride, avarice, and lust—a theme that Bartolommeo revisited throughout his career.

This anti-excess campaign ultimately took an extremist form in Florence, particularly during the tenure of the Dominican reformist Girolamo Savonarola (1452−1498). Secular books, music, instruments, and art were burned in the Florentine piazza in the first bonfire of the vanities in 1497, and around that time Bartolommeo even destroyed some of his own paintings as a result of his alliance with Savonarola’s teachings. When Savonarola’s power over Florence became unmanageable, papal and civil authorities ordered his public execution in 1498. The somber tone and dignified demeanor of Bartolommeo’s Holy Family, created around the same time, sheds light on this turbulent period in Florence.

2024
Provenance: Marches Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenez de Aragona (1813–1897), Florence, by 1857, by descent to his daughter; Mariana Panciatichi, Florence (1835–1919). [Charles Fairfax Murray (1849–1919), Florence]. Count Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi (1878–1955), Rome and Florence, possibly before 1925, and by 1929; by descent in the family until 1969, to; [Eugene V.Thaw (1927–2018), New York, until 1973,
to]; [Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, sold 1973 to]; LACMA
Selected Bibliography: Schaefer, Scott, and Peter Fusco. European Painting and Sculpture in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: an Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987.
Conisbee, Philip et al. The Ahmanson Gifts: European Masterpieces in the Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.

Puro, Semplice e Naturale: nell'arte a Firenze tra Cinque e Seicento. Firenze: Giunti Editore, 2014.
Lehmbeck, Leah, editor. Gifts of European Art from The Ahmanson Foundation. Vol. 1, Italian Painting and Sculpture. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019.