Madonna dell'Impannata   

by:   Penni   |    Raphael   |    Romano      patron:   Altoviti      category: Painting   
related artifacts: Elizabeth Virgin study | Madonna and Child study 4 | Pace drapery study

note:  This painting presents issues of both authorship and dating. It was purportedly a work for Bindo Altoviti, however, no documentation for the commission survives. Passavant (1872) proposed that the figure of the Christ child was rendered by Raphael; Cavacaselle (1882) and A. Venturi (1891) argued that the all of the right side of the composition (including the Madonna, the Christ Child, and Saint John, while Penni completed all of the left-hand side. Henry and Joannides (2013) give Romano the figure of the young Saint John. In terms of dating, Oberhuber (1982) proposed a date as early as 1511, however, a later date, of 1516 (as proposed by Pope-Hennessy (1970) seems more realistic if this indeed a collaborative painting.