Andrea del Sarto's Borgherini Holy Family and Charity: Two Intertwined Late Works

Since Giorgio Vasari first published his Vita of Andrea del Sarto in 1550, it has has been clear that late in his career the artist painted two works contemporaries saw as closely related, The Holy Family with the Young Saint John the Baptist and Charity. The former, painted for the Florentine Giovanni Borgherini and commonly referred to as the Borgherini Holy Family, later descended through the Rinuccini and Corsini families in Florence. Charles Fairfax Murray purchased it in 1905, and the panel was sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1922. It is among the artist's most admired, studied, and copied compositions.