Major purchase for Uffizi, Daniele da Volterra's Madonna arrives: d'Elci masterpieces reunited

The Uffizi Gallery has purchased the Madonna and Child, St. John and St. Barbara, a work from around 1548 by Daniele da Volterra (Daniele Ricciarelli; Volterra, 1509 - Rome, 1566), which the Benappi antiques gallery presented at this year’s edition of the Florence Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato(ongoing until Sept. 29). The work once belonged to the collection of the Pannocchieschi d’Elci family and, together withElijah in the Desert, constituted an important pair of paintings by the Volterra painter (whose catalog is far from extensive) that were once in the possession of the noble Sienese family. The two works, in 2017, had been shown in a focus exhibition at the Corsini Gallery in Rome entitled Daniele da Volterra. The d’Elci Paintings(our review here) in an event that, we speculated, seemed to prelude the two works’ entry into a public collection, and so indeed they did.

Last year, the Florentine institute had bought, again from Benappi, theElijah in the Desert, and this year it is the turn of Daniele da Volterra’s other d’Elci painting: the two works are thus reunited, in a public context. Reportedly, it appears that the purchase was made for the sum of two million euros.

Pictured: Daniele da Volterra, Madonna and Child, St. John and St. Barbara (c. 1548; oil on panel, 131.6 x 100 cm). Photo: Andrea Lensini, Siena

Major purchase for Uffizi, Daniele da Volterra's Madonna arrives: d'Elci masterpieces reunited

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