The Madonna and Child with Saint Joseph, Saint John the Baptist and a Donor

In 1517 the Florentine merchant Pierfrancesco Borgherini was unhappy with a Virgin and Child with Saint John he had ordered from the painter Andrea del Sarto. Sebastiano, then in Rome, offered to paint a replacement, and a friend wrote to Michelangelo asking for a full drawing he could work from. This panel, dated 1517 on the arm of the Virgin's seat, may be the result. The kneeling man she draws in with her arm is most likely Borgherini himself, probably painted from life early on. What came from Michelangelo seems to have been only a quick red chalk sketch, now in Rotterdam, and infrared images show the painter feeling his way without a full-size cartoon. The panel was later widened on the right by about ten centimetres, and Saint Joseph, asleep with his head on his arm, was not in the first plan.