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Scenes from the Life of Saint John the Baptist
Provenance
Possibly part of a suite of decorations belonging to Francesco di Bonacorso Pitti, Florence, from 1494 [based on arms in a related panel in National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; see Lloyd 1993, p. 20]. Luigi Grassi, Florence, by 1924 [bill of sale dated March 18, 1924 in curatorial file]; sold to Martin A. Ryerson (died 1932), Chicago, 1924; on loan to the Art Institute, 1924; by descent to his wife Carrie Hutchinson Ryerson (1859–1937), Chicago, 1932 [Last Will and Testament of Martin A. Ryerson, Died August 11, 1932, copy in Institutional Archives, Art Institute of Chicago]; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1937.
Exhibition history
The University of Chicago, The Renaissance Society, Old and New Masters of Religious Art, 1931, no. 78. The University of Chicago, The Renaissance Society, Commemorative Exhibition from the Martin A. Ryerson Collection, 1932, no. 8. Art Instititute of Chicago, New Light on Old Masters: Early Italian Paintings in the Art Institute, 1993, no cat.
Publications
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection, 1925, p. 159, no. 2027. Raimond van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, The Hague, 1931, vol. 12, p. 441 n. 2, vol. 13, p. 122, fig. 76. Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Oxford, 1932, p. 6, Bernard Berenson, Pitture italiane del Rinascimento, Milan, 1936, p. 5. William R. Valentiner, Paintings in the Collection of Martin A. Ryerson, unpub. MS [1932]. Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago, n. pag. Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, “Giovannino Battista: A Study in Renaissance Relgious Symbolism,” Art Bulletin 37 (1955), pp. 88 n. 23, 98 n. 81. The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection, Chicago, 1961, p. 18. Gerhard Eimer, “Bartolommeo de Giovanni and the Urbino Bible in The Vatican Library,” Konsthistorisk Tidskrift 35 (1966), p. 64, fig. 14. Art Institute of Chicago, Grands Musées 2, Paris [1968], pp. 24 (ill.), 67. Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1972, pp. 16, 416, 571. Everrett Fahy, Some Followers of Domenico Ghirlandajo, New York and London, 1976, pp. 132–33, no. 18, p. 156. Christopher Lloyd, Italian Paintings before 1600 in The Art Institute of Chicago; A Catalogue of the Collection, Chicago, 1993, pp. 17-21, ill. Glad Tidings of Great Joy. Christmas at the Art Institute, Chicago, 1993, pp. 14–15, ill., 39. Graham Hughes, Renaissance Cassoni: Masterpieces of Early Italian Art: Painted Marriage Chests, 1400–1550, London, 1997, p. 176. Ellen Callmann, “Jacopo del Sellaio, the Orpheus Myth, and Painting for the Private Citizen,” Folia Historiae Artium, n.s. 4 (1998), p. 158. Jacqueline Marie Musacchio, The Art and Ritual of Childbirth in Renaissance Italy, New Haven and London, 1999, pp. 53-54, fig. 38. Nicoletta Pons, Bartolomeo di Giovanni, collaboratore di Ghirlandaio e Botticelli, exh. cat., Museo di San Marco, Florence, 2004, pp. 56-7, 67. Caroline Campbell, "Revaluing dress in history paintings for quattrocento Florence" in Revaluing Renaissance Art, ed. Gabriele Neher and Rupert Shepherd (Aldershot, 2000), pp. 241, 243 n. 34. Nicoletta Pons, "Problemi di collaborazione e compagnie di artisti: cassoni e spalliere di Jacopo del Sellaio, Biagio d'Antonio e Bartolomeo di Giovanni" in Virtù d'amore. Pittura nuziale nel Quattrocento fiorentino, exh. cat., Galleria dell'Accademia and Museo Horne, Florence, 2010, pp. 136, 137.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Bartolomeo di Giovanni (Italian, active c. 1465-1501)
- Date
- 1490/95
- Medium
- Tempera on panel (poplar)
- Dimensions
- 74 × 150.4 cm (29 3/16 × 59 3/16 in.); Framed: 88 × 164 cm (34 5/8 × 64 9/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- painting
- Style
- Renaissance
- Place
- Italy
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
- Accession no.
- 1937.996
Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00000834
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