The Gualino Pesellinesque Master

Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Graham, Washington, Indiana;
By whom donated to the Martin D'Arcy Gallery of Art, Loyola University, Chicago, Il., before 1973;
With Schaeffer Galleries, New York, 1979;
With Harari and Johns Ltd., London.

D.F. Rowe, "The Martin D'Arcy Gallery of Art, Loyola University of Chicago," in Art Journal, vol. 32, no. 4, Summer 1973, p. 436, reproduced p. 436, fig. 17 and p. 433, fig. 1 (as Florentine School, 15th century).

The following condition report has been provided by Karen Thomas of Thomas Art Conservation LLC., 336 West 37th Street, Suite 830, New York, NY 10018, 212-564-4024, info@thomasartconservation.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is in good condition in many respects and has been only minimally retouched. The thinly-applied paint layer are generally well preserved with some light rubbing visible across the picture. Glazes used to create modeling in the red garments are faded and worn, leading to some reinforcement of the red glazes. Restoration includes the face of the bottom right saint and a modest number of small touches throughout the picture. The varnish is even with a pleasant low gloss and adequately saturates the pigments . The wood panel support has been thinned, revealing old insect damage, and a cradle has been attached to the reverse. Several grain-oriented cracks have developed between the fixed vertical cradle members. Structural intervention should be considered to stabilize the wood panel, possibly including removal of the cradle, however cleaning does not appear to be necessary at this time.
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Of an impressive size and beautifully preserved, this anconetta depicts the Madonna and Child enthroned surrounded by Saints John the Baptist, Paul, Nicolas of Bari and George. The robust figures of the Madonna and Child and the precise attention to detail are typical of painters in the mid-15^th Century in Florence.  Indeed, the continuing influence of such masters as Fra Angelico can still be seen in the present work, and elements of the composition are reminiscent of artists like Apollonio di Giovanni (1414-1465) and Domenico di Michelino (1417-1491), to whom the painting has been attributed in the past. Federico Zeri considered the picture to be distinctive enough to form part of a group of paintings he gave to an artist called the “Gualino Pesellinesque Master,” a painter active in the mid 15^th Century whom he christened after a Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Anthony Abbot in the Gualino collection, now in the Galleria Sabauda, Turin (inv. 654).  That painting also shows the Madonna enthroned and seated on a dais with a circular step before her, the foreground also painted in the same faux marble technique.  Zeri included only five pictures in this grouping, all of them depicting the Madonna in majesty, and all but one flanked by various saints.  The influence of Pesellino is present in all, although some scholars have not fully recognized Zeri's grouping.  Indeed, tentative attributions for the present work to Apollonio di Giovanni and the Master of the Castello Nativity have been suggested.