Unpublished documents for the Madonna and Children playing in the Palatine Gallery

Abstract

This article focuses on the Madonna with the Christ Child and Saint John the Baptist at play currently in a deposit of Florence’s Galleria Palatina (inv. 1890, n. 1335). It belongs to a series of similar Madonnas all inspired by a lost model by Leonardo da Vinci or by a ‘pastiche’ painted by a follower. Many recent studies attribute the Galleria Palatina’s Madonna to Fernando Yáñez de la Almedina or to his partner Fernando Llanos. Other studies have, however, pointed out the distinct difference between the style of painting in this panel and the manner in documented works by the two ‘Fernandos’. The question is resolved by an unpublished bill presented by the copyist Valerio Marucelli (Florence 1563-1626), which confirms the attribution suggested in an inventory published by Alessandro Conti.