Current knowledge
Royal Collection 402884
Polidoro da Caravaggio
Putti with Goats
Current measurements:
31cm x 120cm
Date:
c.1527-8
Part of a series of long, narrow panels by the Lombard artist Polidoro da Caravaggio, Raphael’s most unconventional pupil. Charles I bought it as one of 23 Italian pictures from the dealer William Frizell in 1637.
Despite being hung in a subordinate, decorative fashion beneath other pictures, there is evidence that in the 1630s Charles was hungry to collect Polidoro’s work, having heard rumours of the artist’s brilliance. The series remains in the Royal Collection today, almost intact.
Van der Doort 1639
Polidoro
4 Children Playing with 4 Goats and Rams, light from the blank, the first long and narrow fresco on panel
Sale Inventory c.1649-51
Walpole Society reference (1972):