The Madonna and Child, oil on canvas, 90 x 76 cm, oval, framed

Provenance:
Lorenzo and Domenico Francesco Rosi, Florence;
Giovanni Gerini, Florence, 1727;
Gerini Collection, Florence, until 1825;
Sir Mark Fehrs Haukohl and The Haukohl Family Collection, Houston, Texas

Literature:
Raccolta di stampe rappresentanti i quadri più scelti de’ signori marchesi Gerini, I, Florence, Stamperia Moückiana, 1759, pp. XXIV–XXV;
Raù-Rastrelli 1775, Elogio di Onorio Marinari in [Anton Francesco Raù, Modesto Rastrelli], Serie degli uomini i più illustri nella pittura, scultura e architettura con i loro elogi, e ritratti incisi in rame cominciando dalla sua prima restaurazione fino ai tempi presenti, 12 volumes, Florence, for Gaetano Cambiagi [et al.], 1769–1775, XI (1775), pp. 168–69;
sale, Florence, Palazzo Gerini, December 1825, lot no. 266;
F. Baldassari, La pittura del Seicento a Firenze. Indice degli artisti e delle loro opere, Turin 2009, p. 508, pl. LIX;
S. Benassai, Una ‘Madonna con Bambino’ di Onorio Marinari dalla collezione Gerini, in: Paragone, III, no. 86, 2009, pp. 58–60, plate 34;
S. Benassai, Onorio Marinari – Pittore nella Firenze degli ultimi Medici, Florence 2011, p. 150, cat. no. 79, plate 11;
Florence and the Baroque: Paintings from the Haukohl Family Collection, exhibition catalogue, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, November 2011, p. 11

Exhibited:
Florence and the Baroque: Paintings from the Haukohl Family Collection, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, November 2011 – February 2012

The present painting can be assigned to the artist’s late period and is stylistically closely related to his Apollo in the Haukohl Collection. Similarly classical features can also be found in the Angel Annunciate (Musée Crozatier, Le Puy-en-Velay) or in Ganymed, now in a private collection. The rendering of the Child with blond, curly hair corresponds to those in the Madonna of the Rosary in the church of Santa Maria del Fiore in Lapo and in the Madonna del Carmine in Cutigliano.

The structure of the painting’s composition derives from Raphael’s celebrated Madonna della Seggiola. Marinari has adopted from Raphael’s model the position of the Madonna, but has limited his scene to the Madonna and Child, excluding Saint John the Baptist. Both Mother and Child face the spectator. A heavenly glowing light emanates from the Child, bathing the amber-coloured background in soft tones, which is somewhat unusual within the artist’s oeuvre.

Silvia Benassai considers the present painting to be one of the most important works by Onorio Marinari; during the 18th and 19th centuries it was part of the celebrated collection of the Gerini family in Florence. In 1759, Andrea Gerini, a sophisticated connoisseur, commissioned a selection of the most prominent pictures in his collection to be engraved and published, including the present composition. The painting had been purchased by Giovanni Gerini in 1727 from the brothers Lorenzo and Domenico Francesco Rosi together with a depiction of Christ, also by Marinari. Both paintings are listed in Giovanni Gerini’s inventory of 1733.

On the occasion of the celebrations of the Feast of Saint Luke in 1767, the painting was exhibited together with the aforementioned depiction of Christ in the cloister of the Basilica of the SS. Annunziata in Florence. It remained in the Gerini collection until 1825, when it was sold at auction together with 328 further paintings and 22 sculptures (see. S. Benassai 2011, p. 150).

Onorio Marinari was mainly active in Florence and trained under his father, Sigismondo di Pietro Marinari, and his cousin, Carlo Dolci. The influence of Carlo Dolci and subsequently of Simone Pignoni and Francesco Furini is clearly apparent in his work. Francesco Saverio Baldinucci, in his Vite, declared that Marinari was a painter in the delicate manner of Carlo Dolci, as was one of his students, Bartolomeo Bimbi (see F. S. Baldinucci, Vite di artisti dei secoli XVII – XVIII, edited by A. Matteoli, 1975). Besides painting, Onorio was also interested in astronomy and in 1674 published a work entitled Fabbrica ed uso dell’ Annulo Astronomico.