Skip to main content

Head of a Cherub

(Italian (Parmese), about 1489–1534)
Medium/TechniqueFresco transferred to panel
Dimensions21.6 x 20.0 cm (8 1/2 x 7 7/8 in.)
Credit LineCharles Potter Kling Fund
Accession number56.265
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsPaintings
Collections
ProvenanceAbout 1522-24 until 1587, apse of San Giovanni Evangelista, Parma, Italy (original commission) [see note 1]. By 1888, Abbot Michele Bignami (b. 1808 - d. 1888), Casalmaggiore, near Parma, Italy [see note 2]; sold at his death to Biagi, Cremona; 1917, sold by Biagi to an unknown collector, Treviglio [see note 3]. 1955, Ettore Sestieri, Rome; sold by Sestieri to Adolph Loewi, Los Angeles; 1956, sold by Loewi to the MFA for $2,800. (Accession Date: April 12, 1956)

NOTES:
[1] The fresco in the apse depicted the Coronation of the Virgin, of which this was a part. In 1587, when the choir of the church was extended, the apse was destroyed. [2] This information comes from a handwritten note once attached to the back of the painting, where the owner is named as "Bignami" from Parma. This is probably the collector Michele Bignami. [3] This information comes from the note cited above (see n. 2); the name of the buyer is illegible. In the MFA curatorial file is a letter from the conservator Luigi Cavenaghi, Milan (August 6, 1917) that authenticates the painting but does not specify its owner or location.
The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine
Correggio (Antonio Allegri)
The Flight into Egypt
Unidentified artist, French, 12th century
The Visitation
Unidentified artist, French, 12th century
Head of a Female Saint
Unidentified artist, Byzantine, 12th–14th centuries
Head of a Male Saint
Unidentified artist, Byzantine, 12th–14th centuries
Cherub (fragment)
Unidentified artist, Italian (Venetian), 18th century
Christ before Caiaphas
Paolo da Caylina
Judas Betraying Christ
Paolo da Caylina
Conservation Status: Before Treatment
Paolo da Caylina
Crucifixion of a Thief
Paolo da Caylina