Botticelli's Glasgow 'Annunciation': Patterns of Instability Author(s): Martin Kemp Reviewed work(s): Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol.

119, No. 888, Special Issue Devoted to Italian Painting of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (Mar., 1977), pp. 180-185 Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/878736 . Accessed: 17/11/2012 14:24
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Burlington Magazine.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.72 on Sat, 17 Nov 2012 14:25:14 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

AN

APOLLONIO

DI

GIOVANNI

FOR

AN

HISTORIC

MARRIAGE

after her two brothers' deaths, Beatrice became her father's sole heir. That this very considerable fortune should fall into Pazzi hands constituted such a threat to the Medici that they decreed only males could inherit and that the vast fortune was to go to a cousin, one Carlo Borromei, who had the added advantage of not residing in Florence. This decree is generally thought to have been one of the major causes of the Pazzi Conspiracy that culminated with the murder of Giuliano de' Medici on 26th April I478,

during the celebration of mass in the Cathedral of Florence. Giovanni and Beatrice do not seem to have been implicated at first; that same year, however, Giovanni was imprisoned in the torri di Volterra and his wife's unsuccessful attempt two years later to help him escape ended with her imprisonment as well. Yet the dynastic ambitions expressed in the marriage chest were fulfilled for two of their sons rose to high places.

MARTIN

KEMP

Botticelli's
'PERHAPS

Glasgow

'Annunciation': Patterns

of

Instability*

the greatest surprise of the exhibition is the . Annunciation . . That so important a picture should Glasgow not have been even mentioned in Horne's monumental work is extraordinary in view of the immense pains he took to make an exhaustive study of all the available material. There is no one now living who can speak with anything like his authority to the authenticity of a Botticelli, there is no one who knew so minutely as he did what are the alternatives in the matter of immediate followers and imitators of the master. What for the present I feel competent to say is that the Glasgow picture is a great work of art, that the drawing is everywhere vital, and of a totally different kind from that of the school men who executed Botticelli's designs, that the composition is highly original, and entirely in Botticelli's vein. . . and that, as regards colour, we have a strikingly original and personally felt scheme entirely different from the usual repetitions by minor artists of the common good form of 15th century colour. 'Until, then, I know of any member of Botticelli's circle possessed of these particular qualities I should be inclined to ascribe it to the master himself, and not only that, but to count it as one of his finest works in England [sic!]'. With these words and with an accompanying illustration, Roger MAGAZINE to Fry introduced the readers of THE BURLINGTON the Glasgow Annunciation (Fig.26); the occasion was his review of the Exhibition of FlorentinePainting at the Burlington Fine Art Club in 19I9.1 The Annunciationhad been in the

unwilling hands of Glasgow Corporation from 1856 (two years after Archibald McLellan's death) and had been on public exhibition in the McLellan Galleries, Sauchiehall Street, from I855 until 1902, when it was moved to the present Art Gallery in Kelvingrove Park.2 Its neglect before Fry's enthusiastic pronouncement can only be explained by that special combination of reluctance on the part of connoisseurs to study provincial collections and Glasgow's own failure to honour its treasures - a situation which still pertains today. Subsequently, the picture could not be ignored in catalogues of Botticelli's art, but it has slipped into his euvre without being adequately known. It was exhibited in London again in the dazzling Exhibition of Italian Art in 1930 at the Royal Academy, where it was overwhelmed by the regiments of larger and more overtly spectacular pieces, including Botticelli's own Birth of Venus.3In spite of these metropolitan performances, however, the Glasgow picture is still really waiting to be discovered in its own right and has yet to make its full contribution to our understanding of late Botticelli. Salvini's monograph is typical of its recent treatment. It receives no mention in the text and almost the shortest catalogue entry for an independent painting. And this in spite of his assertion that 'the quality of the work leaves no question that it is autograph.' 4Salvini, like almost everyone else who has recorded the picture, conveys the impression of never having seen it in the original. If he did see it, he could not have examined it very carefully, because a systematic

* I owe a considerable debt of gratitude to those who have made material so readily accessible for this study: to Lord Methuen, for showing me the Sanford documentation; to the Hon. Patrick Lindsay for information regarding the Sanford sale; to Professor Hamish Miles of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham University, for Sanford's account book; to the staff of the Glasgow City Art Gallery, Alasdair Auld, Anne Donald, Francesca Calvacoressi, and Harry McLean, for keen assistance; and the vital nature of the contribution by Mrs Elizabeth Gardner (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) will emerge in the discussion of the provenance. This article is partly based on a paper delivered to the Association of Art Historians in 1976 and published as a brief synopsis in the A.A.H. Bulletin. 1 THE BURLINGTONMAGAZINE,XXV [1919], PP.4-I I and pl.IV. See also FlorentinePainting before 150oo, London [1920], pl.xxi. Fry was referring to H. HORNE: Sandro Botticelli, London [1898].

2 It was not recorded by Dr Waagen in his first notice of the McLellan collection (1854) but appeared in the supplemental volume: Galleriesand Cabinets of Art in GreatBritain, London [1857], No.87. 3 A Commemorative Catalogue the Exhibitionof Italian Art at the Royal Academy, of 2 vols., Oxford and London [1931], p.8i, No.234. A summary of the history o the McLellan collection is provided by H. MILES: of Catalogue Dutch and Flemish Paintings, Glasgow [1961], pp.7-8. * R. SALVINI: All the Paintings of Botticelli, trs. J. Grillezoni, 4 vols., London [1965], IV, p.165, pl. 113. Cf. w. BODE: Botticelli (Klassikerder Kunst), Stuttgart [1926], p.ioo. The only major outright dismissal is by A. VENTURI: Storia dell'arteItaliana, Milan [1911 VII, I, p.642n., who considers it to be the work i], of a follower.

181

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.72 on Sat, 17 Nov 2012 14:25:14 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

26. The Annunciation, Sandro Botticelli. Panel, 49-5 by 6 I9 cm. (City Art Gallery, Glasgow). by

illustrated in Fig.26, reversed. 27. The Annunciation

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.72 on Sat, 17 Nov 2012 14:25:14 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BOTTICELLI'

S GLASGOW

'ANNUNCIATION5

:PATTERNS

OF

INSTABILITY

scrutiny of its surface destroys much of the basis for his confidence, while at the same time substituting what I believe to be less arbitrary criteria for establishing that Botticelli played a dominant role in the painting's conception and execution. There is no documentation to indicate that Botticelli was its author, and none of the early accounts of Florence appear to mention the Annunciation,but the panel itself carries hints of its origins. An inscription painted roughly on the back of the coarse panel can be partially deciphered with the aid of ultra-violet light: 'Botticelli/Dalla Galleria Ri.ani/. . . dalla Chiesa/SanB.rna .. ./di Firenze'.5 This imperfect evidence provides an unexpectedly effective key to a major part of the painting's provenance. The galleria can be recognized as the collection of the Avvocato Rivani, a friend of Sampieri (Director of the Pitti).6 The Casa Rivani is known to have housed the once highly regarded version of the Raphael Madonna dell'Impanatanow in the Methuen Collection at Corsham,7 The link between Rivani and Britain is made by that interesting collector of Italian pictures from 1815 onwards, the Rev. John Sanford. The account book of Sanford at the Barber Institute records his purchase of the 'Impanata di Guilio Romano, Casa Rivani - 1500' on 7th March 1833, and of a 'Fra Bartolomeo dalla Casa Ravani [presumably Rivani] - 2000' on 14th December I832.8 The Glasgow Annunciation was also owned under No.38 in the MS. Catalogueof by Sanford, appearing Paintings purchasedby the Revd John Sanford during his residence in Italy - z83o and following years, as 'Botticelli, born 1434 died I5I5 (sic). Annunciation ?8.8.o.' and subsequently in the partial sale of the Sanford collection at Christie's on 9th March 1839: 'Botticelli. . . 74 The Annunciation, represented in a rich architectural chamber; this rare specimenis from the churchof St Barnabas at Florence.'9It probably was one of the purchases recorded in the account book during November I832 - 'Botticelli/painted by/370' - although no specific mention is made of the Casa Rivani in this instance.10

5 An earlier reading, recorded in the Gallery's file, is as follows: 'Botticelli/la GalleriaRinani/adinadella Chiesa/San Firenze'. Bernardo/di 6 The suggestion of Rivani was made to me by Mrs Elizabeth Gardner. All subsequent discoveries regarding the provenance were dependent on this S suggestion. r. BORENIUs: Catalogue Picturesat Corsham A of Court,London [1939], No.69. 8 The Italian AccountBook of Rev. John Sanford,Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham University, pp.-37 and 31. Sanford's statement in his The Historyof the Picturecalled Madonnadell'Impanata,in thepossessionof the Rev. John Sanford, London [n.d., c. 1845], that he purchased his Madonnadell'Impanata 1834 was, in therefore, as inaccurate as his attribution to Raphael is untenable. For Sanford's activities as a collector, particularly his unusual taste of trecentoand quattrocento works, see B. NICOLSON, THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, XCII pp.207-14. [1955],

in 9 Catalogueof Paintingspurchasedby the Revd. John Sanfordduringhis residence Italy - 183o and Following Tears (Corsham Court, MS. D.9), No.38; a pencil addition records the dimensions inaccurately as 241 - 15. And A Catalogue a of Celebrated Italian Picturescollected the Rev. John Sanfordduringa Galleryof Chiefly by in long Residence Italy, Messrs. Christie and Manson, 9th March 1839. The Botticelli was not included in the earlier, printed Catalogue Paintingsbelonging the to of Rev John Sanford,G. Yates and Son, London [1838]. Nor does it appear among the water-colour copies of some of Sanford's paintings in four volumes at Corsham. AccountBook, p.2o. The odd wording and underlining of this entry was ino10 tended to distinguish it from regular payments made by Sanford to a Signor Botticelli who acted as Sanford's main dealer and restorer. 182

At the 1839 sale it was knocked down at ?4.12S to 'Davis'. Nothing is known about this purchaser or how the painting passed to McLellan at some date during the next fifteen years. The name of the church which originally housed the Annunciation can at present be read from the inscription with equal feasibility as either San Barnaba or San Bernardo, but the sale catalogue, composed at least within the same decade as the inscription, confirms the former. Vasari does mention una tavola by Botticelli in S. Barnaba, but this undoubtedly refers to the spectacular Sacraconversazione now in the Uffizi.11 The Annunciationcannot have been a predella for the large altar-piece, either on grounds of size or suitability of subject; relief tondi of the Angel and Virgin Annunciate are already present behind the Madonna's throne in the Uffizi picture. The Glasgow Annunciation was probably an independent painting, designed for the Sacristy or for another location in which a small work would have been appropriate. This Florentine provenance does not, of course, establish the painting's credentials as an autograph Botticelli, and we know from the Raphael controversy that Sanford's attributions were often coloured by a high degree of collector's optimism. Judging the picture today, the principles of connoisseurship are more than usually fallible because of the condition of the picture. It has suffered distressingly over the years and continues to present considerable problems of conservation. Its condition is better than the Fogg Crucifixion, but that is about the best that can be said for it. It is painted on a wild-grained, worm-ridden panel, probably walnut, to which narrow strips have been added top and bottom. The height of the panel varies from 51.4 cm. just inside the left edge to 51 cm. at the right, including o.8 cm. and 0.9 cm. strips at top and bottom respectively. The width varies from a minimum of 60.7 cm. at the top to a maximum of 61.9 cm. at the base. The gesso ground has cracked and lifted throughout and an examination by ultra-violet confirmed what unaided vision had suggested - that large areas have been retouched and that the upper section of the foreground architecture has been almost wholly repainted. Some thoroughly nasty retouchings are conspicuous: in the cobalt blue splodges added to mercifully small areas of the draperies; in the angel's left wing; in the light strip below this wing and in the floor immediately to the left of the central pillar. Perhaps repainting also accounts for the disturbing illogicality of the illuminated area of floor at the left of the Virgin's room, which could only result from light passing through the solid section of wall beside the arched door. An ardent Panofskian might take this as a clever manifestation of divine light: I prefer to think that it is a mistake. The most reliable sections lie within the area framed by the arch which leads into the courtyard: the sky and delicate clouds; the spindly trees and much of the angel. The Virgin, most particularly her head and neck, appears to have been spared the worst effects of retouching.

Vol.III,

11 G. VASARI: Le vite de' pi eccellenti pittori, scultori, et architettori, ed. G. MILANESI, Florence [1906], pp.3 10o-I1.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.72 on Sat, 17 Nov 2012 14:25:14 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BOTTICELLI'5S

GLASGOW

'ANNUNCIATION':

PATTERNS

OF

INSTABILITY

With so little to rely upon, can anything useful be said concerning the possible authenticity of the picture? In general terms, the setting of small, expressive figures within grandly complex architecture is thoroughly consistent with a series of works by Botticelli from the late 1490's and early 1500's, most notably the stories of Virginia(Bergamo, Accademia Carrara) and Lucretia (Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum) and the St ZenobiusMiracles(London, National Gallery, New York, Metropolitan and Dresden, Gemaildegalerie). In detail, the tense, tremulous, almost neurotic handling of the best preserved sections is found throughout a group of small, late, intensely felt paintings associated with the MysticNativity(1501, London, National del Gallery), probably beginning with the Madonna Baldacchino(Milan, Ambrosiana) and surely ending with the Last Communion St Jerome (New York, Metropolitan). The of MysticNativityitself providesexcellent reasonsfor recognizing the Virgin's head and the design of the angel as Botticelli's personal products. Against this must be set the strange ringlets of the angel's hair, which form rhythms in contradiction to Botticelli's customary flow of linear curves. But, equally, the busy ringlets are opposed to the stereotyped handling of his imitators. All this does no more than suggest that fragmentsof Botticelli's participation may be discerned amongst the wreckage. And I have already announced my intention of avoiding reliance upon this kind of evidence. It is only when we turn to the emotional intensity and the artistic means of achieving such urgency of feeling that we can move on to a more solid footing. None of the fourteenth of or fifteenth-centuryAnnunciations this type - divided by a central pier or column - has a greater sense of penetration and communication in the way that the insistent motion of the Angel elicits an acquiescent inclination from the Virgin as she meekly replies 'I am the Lord's servant'. This penetration is brilliantly thrown into tension by the strong recession of the courtyard arcade and garden path. The path itself, having passed between the sentinel trees, ends with sterile abruptness against a flat, light strip, which should, according to iconographic orthodoxy, be the containing wall of the hortus the conclusus, 'enclosed garden' symbolic of the Madonna's virginity.12The colour of the strip, however, is sky-blue in the best preserved section to the right of the Angel, and the curving upper contour indicates that the garden is here bounded by a lake which is in turn enclosed by mountains. If this reading is correct, it represents an
unusual variation on the traditional theme. The primary function of the architecture, however, is not to emphasise these distant features but to provide dynamic articulation for the narrative. And it does this in a way unparalleled in the work of any other fifteenth-century artist, with the notable exception of Donatello. So skilfully does the building move and sway in response to the narrative that the extraordinary distortions are not immediately apparent. In fact, the majority of the apparent verticals are inclined significantly from their normal position and those which are upright largely serve to empha-

sise the inclination of the major forms. The central pier plays the most important role in instigating the instability an effect which becomes disturbinglyobtrusive if the picture is reversed (Fig.27). Does this merely indicate the participation of an astigmatic pupil or, even worse, a crooked restorer? Or is it deliberate and purposive? I believe that the distortions were consciously contrived for effects which are integral to the narrative force of the work. The chief evidence is to be found in the underdrawing for the architecturewhich is visible as a series of lines incised into the surfaceof the gesso below the paint layers. There are at least two and in some places three separateunderdrawings for much of the architecture, most particularly for those elements where the angle of inclination is greatest. One set of incised lines corresponds to the present arrangement, while another set of lines shows a scheme in which the central uprights were consistently vertical. Recently taken X-rays (Fig.29), indicate that the artist made as many as three attempts to obtain the desired angle for the central pillar before he began to paint the architecture. (The main features of the vertical underdrawing are recorded in Fig.28). This shows that the architecturewas realigned with great care to deviate from the fifteenth-centurynorm of geometrical precision. The subtlety with which the artist has balanced the angles can be seen by comparing the way in which the central pier has been tilted decisively away from the vertical underdrawing, while in the piers running along the left side of the corridor,it is the first underdrawingwhich is strongly inclined and the painted forms which have moved towards the vertical. These patterns of instability are devoted, I believe, to ends which are primarily expressive, although the form they take may have been suggested by optical/perspectival considerations. The upwards convergence of the corridor walls seems to be striving towards a secondary vanishing point, as if the artist has in mind the perspective distortions which occur with large structures close to the eye - that is with the problems posed by wide-angle vision as discussedin the late fifteenth century by Piero della Francesca and Leonardo da Vinci.13 These problems will be familiar to anyone who has taken a photograph of a large building from close range or used a wide-angle lens. But the uprightsonly converge very approximately towards the upper point; the system is not precise and all the structuresto the right of the central pier disconcertinglyfail to participate consistentlyin
the convergence. The distortions are, therefore, more instinctive than optical, expressing a striving for an upwards motion which extends the austere grandeur of the Virgin's palazzo. Even the arch at the entrance to the courtyard has been redesigned higher than the underdrawing as part of this striving for the ascendant. The space around the angel is thus activated by a three-dimensional tension of perpendicularly opposed motions: the main perspective thrust into the distance; the upwards surge of the architecture; and the lateral impulsion of the angel himself. The whole building

12 Song of Songs,4:"12.The hortusconclusus a is conspicuous feature of Botticelli's for Cestello (Florence, Uffizi); see SALVINI, op. cit., III, 1489-90 Annunciation p.133, pl.38.

13 PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA: prospectiva De pingendi, ed. G. N. FASOLA,Florence da [1942], I, pl.IV, and The LiteraryWorkof Leonardo Vinci,ed. J. P. RICHTER,2 vols., 3rd ed., London [I970], Nos.1o7-o9. See also j. WHITE: The Birth and

Rebirthof PictorialSpace,2nd ed., London [1967], pp.207-15.

I83

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.72 on Sat, 17 Nov 2012 14:25:14 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BOTTICELLI'S

GLASGOW

'ANNUNCIATION

: PATTERNS

OF

INSTABILITY

plays a sophisticated r6le in the dynamic pattern of response and counter-response between the Virgin and impulsive angel, the central pier performing the major task of amplifying the Virgin's less pronounced movement. These architectural dynamics are not to be found in the reliefs of Lorenzo Ghiberti, sometimes adduced as an influence on Botticelli's late compositions, but in the works of Donatello, above all in the roundels of Brunelleschi's Sacristy for S. Lorenzo. The Ascentof St John, in particular, exploits an upwards convergence for expressive ends to support the narrative, using a system which is not precisely optical (in spite of the claims of Parronchi) but instinctive and empirical.14 If Botticelli's late interest in Donatello is in need of proof, this is surely provided by the Tragedyof Virginiawhich uses architecture to articulate impassioned figure groups in a way only prefigured in Donatello's mature reliefs. Clearly, an unusual mind has been at work in the Annunciation.But was it really Botticelli's? Although the awry buildings cannot be precisely paralleled in his other paintings, he was certainly exploiting related design procedures in his most remarkable productions during the 1490's, the Dante Illustrations.15 The rhythmical patterns of sweeping curves and abrupt uprights, often relying upon harsh disjunction, occurs in many of the Divina commediadrawings, and the particular device of perspective distortions occurs in two of the most expressive Inferno compositions, Cantos IX and X (Figs.3o and 31). The terrible tombs of the perpetually incinerated heretics are drawn in wilful perspective disarray which creates an agitated pattern of deviant forms. Under the pen lines of the tombs in Inferno IX are metalpoint underdrawings, some of which appear to be more spatially orthodox. The pentimentiaround the open door in Inferno X further show his willingness to experiment with unstable structures, as to the tilting, toppling figures of Virgil and Dante himself. The parallels with the Annunciation are very striking. The Virgin's stool, for instance, has been designed in just the same manner as the tombs; a neatly correct underdrawing has been superseded by one which lifts and tilts the upper surface, almost like the table-top in a Czanne still-life. That Botticelli was prepared to make radical changes in his architecture in the underdrawing of a panel painting is confirmed by the London National Gallery Adoration, in which the arches on the left once extended in a continuous row across the whole background, before Botticelli decided upon the centralized emphasis of the present ruined 'basilica'. Further detailed adjustments to the architecture can be found throughout the painting. But at this relatively early stage of his career, the changes are from one perspectively orthodox scheme to another. The distorted forms of the Infernoillustrations and Annunciation appear to be a particular feature of his style during the 1490's, when he was showing

signs of a spiritual disturbance of a most profound kind. Although the Annunciationis superficially different from the climactic painting of this phase, the Mystic Nativity, a deep community of feeling exists between the two works. The sheer intensity of feeling which has forced the very fabric of the Virgin's palace to participate in the dynamics of a spiritual narrative is surely the same as that which has moulded the rocks around the Holy Family into such an unnatural vault. If what I am saying is true, then the Glasgow Annunciation is not only, as Fry thought, 'one of his finest works in England' (or even Britain!), but is one of the most eccentrically individual works of the Renaissance to be found anywhere.

Shorter

Notices

new Tripych by di Buonaccorso A Niccolo and a Problem

BY BRUCE COLE and ADELHEID
RECENTLY

MEDICUS GEALT

the Indiana University Art Museum acquired a small, unpublished folding triptych attributed to Niccol6 di Buonaccorso (Fig.32). In its central panel is the Madonna of Humility, and in the wings are (at the right) Sts John the Baptist and James the Greater, and (to the left) St Catherine of Alexandria and an unidentified female saint. Above the Madonna is the head of Christ in a tondo; in the lateral pinnacles the Annunciation appears. The centre panel measures 52 by 26 cm., the two wings are 52 by 13 cm., and the base is 9 by 9-5 cm. across. The picture is in quite good condition, although there are some abrasions and a small amount of inpaint, especially around the gable Christ. The gold appears original except in several areas near the arches where it has been renewed, while the pastiglia work on the base is dirty but totally intact. The back has a wellpreserved fictive marble decoration (Fig.33). Small triptychs are often damaged or fragmentary, so the Indiana painting is a fine example of an almost completely preserved work of this type. We can discover something about the work's origin and date by examining its shape. Such small folding triptychs with a tondo above the centre panel and the Annunciation Virgin and Angel in the wing pinnacles are numerous in early Sienese painting. To our knowledge, however, the exact form of our triptych pointed central arch and rounded wing arches - is seen only in a panel given to the Sienese Luca di Tomme.x Many of these little paintings can be ascribed to minor masters - like Luca - active in Siena during the second half of the Trecento.2 Both Millard Meiss and F. Mason Perkins have written opinions attributing the Indiana panel to Niccol6 di Buonaccorso.3 Since these are not substantiated by comparative examples, it may be useful to see how the triptych is related to this Sienese artist who is documented from the early I370's xFor

14 A. PARRONCHI: Studi su la dolce prospettiva,Milan [1964], p.199, and more reliably, WHITE, op. Cit., pp.156-57. 15 The surviving illustrations are in the Vatican and Staatliche Museen, Berlin. I am inclined to date the drawings as late in the 1490's as the documentation allows; Botticelli was still working for Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de Medici, the patron of the illustrations, in July 1497 (HORNE, op. cit., p.361, doc. XLIX). See most recently K. CLARK: The drawings by Sandro Botticellifor Dante's Divine Comedy, London [1976].

the triptych

(also attributed

to, among

others,

Bartolo

di Fredi) see

F. SANTI:

Gatleria nazionale dell'Umbria: Dipinti, sculture, etc., Rome [i969],

2 See R. VAN MARLE: Italian Schools of Painting, The Hague [1924], ii, pls. 341, 342 and B. BERENSON: Italian Picturesof the Renaissance:CentralItalian andNorth Italian Schools, London [1968], ii, pls.392, 4t 17. 3 The Perkins opinion is dated 1930, the one by Meiss 1958.

pp.99-100oo, pl.79.

184

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.72 on Sat, 17 Nov 2012 14:25:14 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

28.

28. Diagram of The Annunciation showing the main features of the under-drawing and the original location of the central pier. The shaded area indicates the final angle of deviation. 29. X-ray photograph of the lower central The three portion of The Annunciation. upper arrows indicate alternative under-drawings for the left edge of the central pier. The lowest arrow denotes the underdrawing followed in the painting. 30. Dante's 'Divina commedia,Inferno canto IX', by Sandro Botticelli. (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, lat.1896A, fol. 97v). 31. Dante's 'Divina commedia,Inferno canto X', by Sandro Botticelli. (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, lat. 1896A, fol. Ioor).

30.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.72 on Sat, 17 Nov 2012 14:25:14 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions