Andrea del Sarto (1486-1530)
Pala di Gambassi, Madonna con Bambino in gloria e Santi (Gambassi Altarpiece, Virgin and Child in Glory with Six Saints)
1527–1528
Oil on panel, 209 x 176 cm
Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Firenze
This is the central panel of the Pala di Gambassi, commissioned by the painter’s friend Becuccio Bicchieraio da Gambassi.
The work is cited by Vasari who says it was executed by Andrea upon his return from his stay in Luco del Mugello (1521–1523) for his friend Becuccio Bicchieraio da Gambassi, and in that town the biographer indicates its location, also specifying that in the predella, later lost, Andrea had portrayed Becuccio and his wife (see Vasari). Conti supposes that the two portraits of Becuccio, i.e. Domenico di Mattio or Maffio da Gambassi, and his wife, now at the Art Institute of Chicago, previously referred to Andrea, are two portraits inserted by the painter in Gambassi’s altarpiece. The altarpiece was placed in the church of the convent of Saints Lorenzo and Onofrio in Gambassi where it was described in 1576 on the occasion of the pastoral visit of the bishop of Volterra. To confirm the recognition of the client there would be San Lorenzo, protector of glass makers. Finally, Saints Rocco and Sebastiano remember the plague of 1523–1524. When the altarpiece passed into the Medici collections in the 17th century, it was replaced by a copy attributable to Francesco Curradi. After the restoration, recent criticism confirms the dating to around 1527–1528. (Catalogo generale
dei Beni Culturali)