Domenico da Gambassi (c.1525-1528)

Andrea del Sarto (1486-1530)

Domenico da Gambassi (or Becuccio Bicchieraio)
c.15251528
Oil on panel, 22.5 × 15.9 cm
Art Institute of ChicagoChicago

Andrea del Sarto created  this portrait to be incorporated, together with the Portrait of Becuccio Bicchieraio’s wife, in the predella of the Pala di Gambassi, commissioned by his friend the glassmaker.

This casually posed and loosely rendered portrait originally made up part of the lower section, or predella, of an altarpiece for a church in Gambassi, near Florence. The images of the patron, Domenico, and his wife, Lucrezia, flanked additional, now-lost paintings. The painted strapwork around the portraits, discovered during recent conservation treatment, once formed part of a decorative pattern that would have extended throughout the predella; it indicates how all the individual paintings were interconnected. Andrea del Sarto added highlights at the bottom of each roundel, mimicking the natural light of the church, to create the illusion of the paintings being set within a three-dimensional frame. (AIC)

Pair:

Andrea del Sarto (1486-1530)
Lucrezia di Lippo di Iacopo Guidi
c.15251528
Art Institute of ChicagoChicago

 

 

Compare:

Andrea del Sarto (1486-1530)
Domenico di Jacopo di Matteo
c.15281530
Scottish National GalleryEdinburgh

 

 

See also:

• Gambassi, Becuccio Bicchieraio da