Currently not on view
Holy Family,
1540–1549
Domenico Beccafumi, 1484–1551; born Cortine in Valdibiana Montaperti, Italy; died Siena, Italy
y1958-127
This devotional work by the Sienese painter Beccafumi is unfinished and may have been one of his last works. The underdrawing on the panel is visible through thinly applied layers of paint. Bright colors and flickering surfaces exemplify the interest sixteenth-century viewers took in works they had to complete in their minds, collaborating with the artist. It was in this period that Michelangelo’s unfinished sculptures began to be considered icons of genius.
More About This Object
Information
Title
Holy Family
Dates
1540–1549
Maker
Medium
Oil on wood panel
Dimensions
57.8 × 46 cm (22 3/4 × 18 1/8 in.)
frame: 77.8 × 67.9 × 8.9 cm (30 5/8 × 26 3/4 × 3 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, John Maclean Magie, Class of 1892, and Gertrude Magie Fund
Object Number
y1958-127
Culture
Type
Materials
Cosimo I de'Medici, Florence (ca. 1561/74); Ralph Palmer, Esq., England (until 1755; sale, Prestage, London, April 11, 1775, lot 29, to Hawks); Frank Sabin, London (in 1952); anonymous sale, Christie’s London, July 16, 1954, lot 93, to Smith; Calmann, London; Frank Sabin, London (in 1955; to Weitzner); Julius Weitzner, London and New York (1955–58; sold to the Princeton University Art Museum).
- "Recent Acquisitions," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 18, no. 1 (1959): p. 40-42., p. 42
- Bacchiacca and his friends: Florentine paintings and drawings of the sixteenth century: an exhibition presented by the Baltimore Museum of Art, January 10-February 19, 1961, (Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1961., no. 40
- Donato Sanminiatelli, Domenico Beccafumi, (Milano, Bramante, 1967)., p. 121, fig. 77
- Paul W. Richelson, "A panel by Domenico Beccafumi", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 26, no. 2 (1967): p. 59-63., p. 60 (illus.)
- B. B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of pre-nineteenth-century Italian paintings in North American collections, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972)., p. 77
- Domenico Beccafumi e il suo tempo, (Milano: Electa, 1990)., p. 199, 216
- Piero Torriti, Beccafumi, (Milano, Electa, 1998)., p. 197, cat. no. P91 (illus.)
- Pascale Dubus, Domenico Beccafumi, (Paris: Adam Biro, 1999)., p. 45-48; fig. 22 (color)
- Guiliano Briganti and Edi Baccheschi, L'opera completa del Beccafumi, (Milano: Rizzoli, 1977)., p. 109; cat. no. 160
