École de Pietro di Cristoforo VANUCCI, dit Il PERUGINO (Città della Pieve, vers 1450 - Fontignano 1523) The Virgin and Child with Little Saint John and an Angel, also known as the Madonna with the Bag. Oil on canvas. Mounted on panel. Parquetage. 93 x 84.5 cm. Some wear and lifting, restorations and repaints, particularly around the edges and in the background. Remake of the composition on panel (87 x 85.5 cm) from the collection of Cardinal Leopold de' Medici, now in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence (Cf. Serena Padovani, Il dipinti della Galleria palatina e degli Appartamenti Reali. Le Scuole dell'Italia Centrale 1450 - 1530 - n° 47 pp. 225-230 - Giunti 2014). Analogies: The similar motif of the Virgin adoring the child supported by an angel is found in several other works by Perugino, including the one in London's National Gallery (Cf. Perugino il divin pittore exhibition catalog, I. 32, p. 234 (quoted) and Susanna Falabella, Appunti di viaggio, Per una storia della fortuna critica di Perugino in Inghilterra tra seicento e settecento, p 419 (reproi)t - Perugia 2004). Provenance : 1 - Felice Antonio Alessandro Bensa Collection (Genoa 1878-id.; 1963) Italian senator, industrialist and politician. 2 - Alfredo Casali Collection Remains in his family to this day. Bibliography: Luciano Micconi, Corriere della Sera. Una Mostra a San Martino. Antiquario all'ombra del Titano; June 30, 1969 "...una tavola che si considera una replica di bottega del Perugino della celebre "Madonna" attualmente a Palazzo Pitti". Documents : 1 - The photocopy of a letter dated September 1964 from Professor Giovanni Mariacher (Perugia 1912-Padua 1994) considering the work to be an autograph replica of the one in the Galleria Pitti will be given to the purchaser. The author states "Il dipinto, in ottimo stato di conservazione, mostra i caratteri inconfondibili della tecnica e delle qualità proprie di Pietro Vannucci, detto il Perugino". He points out that in his practice of replicas, Perugino had previously treated the motif of the Madonna with Sackcloth in the central panel of the Polyptich of the Charterhouse of Pavia. He also refers to the Nativity in the Liechtenstein collection and the one in the Musée de Nancy. 2 - As well as a photocopy of an undated handwritten letter from English Renaissance historian Evelyn Sandberg Vavalà (1888-1961), who described the work as "Bellissima composizione di Perugino nel momento più caratteristico e più suave della sua arte". With the version in the Pitti Palace, she notes a variation in the landscape.