The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of February 5, 2023

Madonna and Child

c. 1475–1480

Francesco Botticini

(Italian, c. 1446–1497)

Italy, Florence, 15th century

Tempera on poplar panel

Painted surface: 64.6 x 45 cm (25 7/16 x 17 11/16 in.); Panel: 67.2 x 46 cm (26 7/16 x 18 1/8 in.)

Holden Collection 1916.788

Location

117A Italian Renaissance

Description

Francesco di Giovanni Botticini came from a family of painters. His father, Giovanni di Domenico, and his son, Raffaello, were also painters. Little is known of his life or career. He is believed to have apprenticed under Neri de Bicci. The earliest dated altarpiece by his hand is 1471 (now in the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris).

Francesco Botticini

He was the son of Giovanni di Domenico, a painter of playing cards, and the father of Raffaello Botticini (1477-1520, last recorded date). The documents call him Francesco di Giovanni. He probably is the painter who entered the studio of Neri di Bicci in October 1459. His eclectic painting follows in the tradition of his master, Neri di Bicci, and after the style of several of his contemporaries such as Cosimo Rosselli, Fra Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, and Verrocchio. The group of paintings ascribed to him is diversified enough and in some cases so vernacular as to cause some question as to its homogeneity. His one documented work is a tabernacle at Empoli, commissioned in 1484 and more or less finished by 1491.
Provenance
James Jackson Jarves (1884); Mrs. Liberty E. Holden, Cleveland
Citations
Rubinstein-Bloch, Stella. Catalogue of a Collection of Paintings, Etc. Presented by Mrs. Liberty E. Holden to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1917. Mentioned: p. 14-15, cat. no. 6; Reproduced: p. 51, No. 6 archive.org
G. U. "The Holden Collection." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 2 (1917): 19-34. Mentioned: p. 19; reproduced: Front Matter www.jstor.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1925. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 23 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928. Reproduced: p. 27 archive.org
Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 1. European Paintings before 1500. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Reproduced: fig. 21, p. 57 - 58
Exhibition history

Boston Foreign Art Exhibition, 1883-1884, no. 13

Early Italian Painting lent by Mrs. Liberty Emery Holden, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1912, no. 4.

Inaugural Exhibition, Cleveland Museum of Art, June 6- Sept. 20, 1916, no. 6

CMA Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition, 1936, cat. no. 77

Inaugural Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (June 6-September 20, 1916).

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 12, 1936).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1916.788