Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist

Exported from Milan, between 1792 and 1860. {1} Prince Tassilo Festetics de Tolna [1850-1933], Keszthely, Hungary; {2} (E. and A. Silberman Galleries, New York); George Henry Alexander Clowes [1877-1958], Indianapolis, in 1933; {3} Clowes Fund Collection, Indianapolis, since 1958; on long-term loan to the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Courtesy of the Clowes Fund, since 1971 (C10029); given to the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 2014. {1} A red wax seal appears on the verso showing the two-headed eagle of the Austrian Empire, the initials FI in the center (a probably reference to Ferdinand I of Austria), and the words “Dogana di Milano.”According to Andrea Di Lorenzo, Curator at the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan, a seal of this type could only have been in use until 1859-60; see correspondence with Di Lorenzo from May 2007 in IMA Provenance File (C10029). For a similar seal, see the entry for Bergognone’s Christ Rising from the Tomb (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.1) in Miklós Boskovits and David Alan Brown, Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2003, pp. 126-129. Branded into the back of the panel are the initials “GES,” whose meaning has not yet been determined. {2}This information comes from an unpublished presentation brochure compiled by Silberman Galleries at the time of purchase; see IMA Clowes Archive. The painting was then attributed to Piero di Cosimo. {3} See receipt from A. Silberman to Clowes, dated 28 December, 1933; see IMA Clowes Archive, (C10029).