The Young Saint John the Baptist
c. 1610/1630
Sculptor, Florentine, 1585 - c. 1653


West Building Main Floor, Gallery 28
Artwork overview
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Medium
Carrara marble
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
overall: 102.9 x 54.9 x 54.6 cm (40 1/2 x 21 5/8 x 21 1/2 in.)
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Accession
2005.109.1
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Purchased 1900 near Bologna by (Albitez), as by Andrea Sansovino, for Daniel Z. Noorian [d. 1929], New York and Newark;[1] (his estate sale, American Art Association-Anderson Galleries, New York, 12-14 March 1931, no. 643, as by Sansovino, bought in);[2] retained by Noorian's widow, Belle Ward Noorian; possibly (sale, Parke-Bernet, New York,1942);[3] (Piero Tozzi [1882-1974], New York);[4] his estate; purchased 26 October 2005 through (Robert Simon Fine Art, New York, New York) by NGA.
[1] Provenance as given on http://www.robertsimon.com/works(underscore)html/susini.html, accessed 8 March 2012.
[2] Auction records state that the purchaser was Virginia Butts, and The New York Times coverage of the auction results list the buyer as N. Lind, but the sculpture was evidently unsold and remained with Noorian's widow.
[3] This sale has not yet been identified.
[4] No records concerning this sculpture have been discovered in The Tozzi Archive, housed in The Onassis Library for Hellenic and Roman Art, Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1949
Leonardo Da Vinci Loan Exhibition, Los Angeles County Museum, 1949, no. 101, repro., as Attributed to Pierino da Vinci.
1957
Loan for display with permanent collection, Casa Buonarotti, Florence, 1957-1959.
1965
Vatican Pavilion, New York World's Fair, 1965, as Attributed to Michelangelo, not in catalogue.
2018
The Sculpture of Giovan Angelo Montorsorli and his Circle: Myth and Faith in Renaissance Florence, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, 2018-2019.
Bibliography
1964
Creighton, Gilbert. "The Hundred-Dollar Misunderstanding." [Review of Fernanda de' Maffei, Michelangelo's Lost St. John: The Story of a Discovery]. The New York Review of Books 3, no. 1 (20 August 1964).
De'Maffei, Fernanda. Michelangelo's Lost St. John. New York, 1964: as Michelangelo.
"Lost But Not Found" Review of De' Maffei, Michelangelo's Lost St. John. Times Literary Supplement (4 October 1964).
1965
Lombardo, Josef Vincent. Michelangelo: The Pieta and Other Masterpieces. New York, 1965: 19-24, pls. 12-14, as by Michelangelo.
Neugass, Fritz. "Ein Jungendwerk Michelangelos." Weltkunst 35, no. 13 (July 1965): cover, 563, repros., as Attributed to Michelangelo.
Isermeyer, Christian Adolf. "Das Michelangelo-Jahr 1964 und die Forschungen zu Michelangelo als Maler und Bildhauer von 1959 bis 1965" Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 28, no 4-5 (1965): 315-318.
1973
Baldini, Umberto. L'opera completa di Michelangelo scultore. Milan, 1973: as "derived from Pierino da Vinci."
1976
Lombardo, Josef Vincent. Michelangelo: New Discoveries. New York, 1976: as by Michelangelo.
1995
Beck, James. "Pierino da Vinci: fra Michelangelo e Leonardo." and Pedretti, Carlo.”Il nipote scultore.” In Mario Cianchi, ed. Pierino da Vinci: Atti della giornata di studio; Vinci, Biblioteca Leonardiana, 26 maggio 1990. Florence, 1995: 13-15, 25-28, figs. 5, 8, 10, 36, 38, pl. 21; and figs. 5, 8, 10, 36 and 38, pl. XXI, as Attributed to Pierino da Vinci.
2002
Parronchi, Alessandro. "Una nuova ipotesi di attribuzione per il San Giovannino Tozzi." Labyrinthos 41/42, 2002: 25-46, as by Pietro Bernini and Gianlorenzo Bernini.
2003
Parronchi, Alessandro. “Una nuova attribuzione per il San Giovannino Tozzi,” in Alessandro Parronchi. Opere giovanili di Michelangelo VI: Con o senza Michelangelo. Florence, 2003: 71-78, fig. 99-121, as Pietro and Gianlorenzo Bernini, c. 1614-15.
Pratesi, Giovanni, ed. Repertorio della scultura fiorentina del Cinquecento. 3 vols. Turin, 2003: 3:fig. 636, as Pierino da Vinci.
2005
Vogel, Carol. "This Deal Came Around Twice." The New York Times (20 November 2005).
2006
D.M. [David Masello or Dana Micucci]. “A Boy and His Lamb.” Arts & Antiques 29, no. 11 (November 2006): 68.
2012
Leigh, Catesby. "Reviving Sacred Sculpture." First Things (June/July 2012): 19-21, repro.
Caglioti, Francesco. “Il ‘San Giovannino’ mediceo di Michelangelo, da Firenze a Ubeda.” Prospettiva 145 (January 2012; published June 2013): 2-81, esp. 5-6, 34-37, repro., 58-59 nn. 34-38, 60 n. 39, as Gianfrancesco Susini.
2015
"Art for the Nation: The Story of the Patrons' Permanent Fund." National Gallery of Art Bulletin, no. 53 (Fall 2015): 24, repro.
2016
Freddolini, Francesco. "A Rediscovered Work by Domenico Pieratti: The Bust of Louis Hesselin." Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz LVIII Heft 3 (2016): 417-418, n. 30, repro.
2019
Scholten, Frits. “Dusting off terracottas: a critical reception history of Johan Gregor van der Schardt’s artistic legacy.” _Simiolus. Netherlands quarterly for the history of art_41, no. 3 (2019): 131-152, esp.145 (repro.), 146.
Wikidata ID
Q63863983