Provenance:

Private Collection, Florence, Italy, until 1811; exported  (according to a label on the reverse of the stretcher).[1]
With L’Antiquaire, New York; by whom consigned to: Sotheby’s, New York, 6 December 1980, lot 8;  where acquired by: 
Simon Eyres Warren Bonython (1943–2025), Australia  and Thailand; by whom consigned to:
Christie’s East, 21 November 1984, lot 201 (withdrawn) Sotheby’s Arcade, New York, 13 June 1985, lot 88; where acquired by:
Private Collection, New York.
With Robert Simon Fine Art, 2005; where acquired by: Private Collection, California.

Engraved:

Anonymous engraving, probably late 18th or early 19th century, Biblioteca Ariostea, Ferrara.

Exhibited:

“From Palace and Chapel: Important Old Master Paintings,” Robert Simon Fine Art, New York, 2005.
“Money and Beauty: Botticelli, Bankers and the Bonfire of Vanities,” Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, 21 March – 28 June 2015.

Literature:

Ludovica Sebregondi, “Santo, Eretico, Precursore della Riforma: La Diffusione dell’Immagine di Girolamo Savonarola,” in Girolamo Savonarola: L’Uomo e il Frate, Spoleto, 1999, p. 341.

Ludovica Sebregondi, “Savonarola: Un Percorso per Immagini,” in Una Città e il Suo Profeta: Firenze di Fronte al Savonarola, ed. Giancarlo Garfagnini, Florence, 2001, pp. 503-504.

Ludovica Sebregondi, Iconografia di Girolamo Savonarola 1495–1998, Florence, 2004, pp. 92, 120, 430, cat. no. 118.

Robert B. Simon, From Palace and Chapel: Important Old Master Paintings, New York, 2005, pp. 12-15.

Catherine Turrill, “Appendix 2: List of Paintings Attributed to Plautilla Nelli,” in Plautilla Nelli (1524–1588): The Painter-Prioress of Renaissance Florence, ed. Jonathan K. Nelson, Florence, 2008, p. 127, cat. no. 36.

Stefano Dall’Aglio, Savonarola e il Savonarolismo, Toronto, 2010, cover image.

Fausta Navarro, “Semplice Lecto, Semplice Studio, Semplice Figure: Suor Plautilla Nelli ‘Dipintora’ per Santa Caterina de’ Ricci tra Firenze e Prato / Suor Plautilla Nelli “Dipintora” for Saint Catherine de’ Ricci Between Florence and Prato,” in Plautilla Nelli: Arte e Devozione sulle Orme di Savonarola / Art and Devotion in Savonarola’s Footsteps, ed. Fausta Navarro, exh. cat., Livorno, 2017, pp. 46-47, 50, fig. 12.

Few religious figures have ever achieved the secular power that Fra Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498) held in the last decade of the 15th century in Florence. His uncompromising preaching from the pulpit of San Marco beginning in 1489 soon brought him a fervid following among the Florentine populace. It also engendered the suspicion of the ruling Medici family, his harsh vision of personal spirituality and Christian morality being contrary to the humanist culture and secular interests of Lorenzo il Magnifico. Following Lorenzo’s death in 1492, Savonarola’s activities took a political turn as his followers, the Piagnoni (Weepers), took power and established the Florentine republic as a Christian commonwealth with God as sovereign and the Gospel as law.

Only a few painted portraits of Savonarola have survived from the 16th century. While literary sources attest to their proliferation among his followers, a damnatio memoriae resulted in the destruction of nearly all of them. Fra Bartolomeo’s commemorative profile portrait (Fig. 1) and his allegorical depiction of Savonarola as Saint Peter Martyr, both in the Museo di San Marco in Florence, are the only surviving painted portraits by an artist who personally knew Savonarola.

Plautilla Nelli’s authorship of the present portrait was first suggested independently by Everett Fahy and Francesco Caglioti. Stylistic similarities are evident with Nelli’s other treatments of figures in profile, particularly those in her Last Supper (Fig. 2), Savonarola Asking for the Virgin’s Intercession (Fig. 3), and the Madonna of the Rosary with Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine of Siena (Fig. 4). Other cognates can be found in Nelli’s series of four depictions of Saint Catherine of Siena or portraits of her contemporary Saint Caterina de’ Ricci (Fig. 5).

Savonarola is here shown in his iconic profile, his left hand resting on a book as he raises his right in a gesture associated with oration and spiritual argument. He bears the halo of a saint, an honor which his followers sought for him but was never bestowed. His cowl and cassock are decorated in gold with fiamelle. These flame emblems relate directly to the golden flames mentioned by Saint Caterina de’ Ricci in a letter written in 1574 to Ludovico Capponi, in which she describes a portrait of Savonarola that was commissioned by the nuns of the convent of San Vincenzo in Prato. It is intriguing to consider that the present painting, or another version of it by Plautilla, could be the portrait described by Caterina de’ Ricci. Rather than alluding to Savonarola’s martyrdom and burning at the stake, the fiamelle represent his holiness and the presence of the Holy Spirit.[2] 

This painting seems to have had some celebrity, as an engraving was made after it in the 18th or early 19th century (Fig. 6).

[1] An old, fragmentary label on the reverse of the stretcher records that the painting was exported from Florence: “UFFICIO ESPORTAZIONE / 31 AGO [August] 1811.”

[2] Fausta Navarro, “Semplice Lecto, Semplice Studio, Semplice Figure: Suor Plautilla Nelli ‘Dipintora’ per Santa Caterina de’ Ricci tra Firenze e Prato / Suor Plautilla Nelli “Dipintora” for Saint Catherine de’ Ricci Between Florence and Prato,” in Plautilla Nelli: Arte e Devozione sulle Orme di Savonarola / Art and Devotion in Savonarola’s Footsteps, ed. Fausta Navarro, exh. cat., Livorno, 2017, p. 47. Interestingly, similar fiamelle appear along with the star on the Virgin’s mantle in Cat. 3.