Ancora il Cigoli a Figline (con una data per Tommaso Gherardini)

A study of the documentation relating to the Compagnia del Corpus Domini in Figline Valdarno, housed in the Florence State Archives, makes it possible to usnquestionably establish the authorship of two oil paintings on wood panel of the Sorrowful Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist in mourning, now in the sacristy of the local Collegiate Church of Santa Maria, to the early period of Ludovico Cigoli. These formed the lateral elements of a macchina d’altare dedicated to the Holy Crucifix, dismantled in the eighteenth century during a modernisation project that also involved the painting of a fresco in the vault above by Tommaso Gherardini, in 1774. Cigoli’s two panels, datable to 1586-1587, provide a key element for the understanding of his stylistic evolution, when after his early works, influenced by Pontormo’s maniera, he turned to the more experimental stimuli prompted by his discovery of Correggio and Barocci.