Lorenzo Lippi

With Torello Bacci (d. after 1873), Florence;

From whom acquired by Alexander William Crawford Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford and 8th Earl of Balcarres (1812–1880), for 250 francs in 1865;

By descent to his son, James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford and 9th Earl of Balcarres (1847–1913);

By descent to his son, David Alexander Edward Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford and 10th Earl of Balcarres (1871–1940);

By descent to his son, David Alexander Robert Lindsay, 28th Earl of Crawford and 11th Earl of Balcarres (1900–1975);

His sale ('The Property of The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres removed from Haigh Hall, Wigan'), London, Christie's, 11 October 1946, lot 140 (as Matteo Roselli [sic]), for £52.10s.0d., to Rynandes;

Private collection, UK.

H. Brigstocke, 'Lord Lindsay as a Collector', in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, Manchester, vol. 64, no. 2, 1982, p. 322 (as Matteo Rosselli, untraced);

H. Brigstocke, 'Lord Lindsay as a Collector of Paintings', in 'A Poet in Paradise': Lord Lindsay and Christian Art, A. Weston-Lewis (ed.), exh. cat., Edinburgh 2000, p. 30 (as Matteo Rosselli, untraced).

Probably Aberdeen, Aberdeen County and Municipal Buildings, August 1873. (according to the 1946 sales catalogue)

This painting was formerly in the collection of Alexander William Crawford Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford and 8th Earl of Balcarres (1812–1880). Lindsay, widely considered to have been one of the most significant collectors of Italian primitives during the nineteenth century, purchased this baroque painting from a dealer in Florence in 1865 (see Provenance).¹ This acquisition was made during the most fruitful period of the building of his collection, with works by Jacopo del Sellaio, Bicci di Lorenzo, Domenico Veneziano and others attributed to Pinturicchio and Pollaiuolo, all amassed during the 1860s and ’70s.

Another version of this composition, most likely a later copy, was sold at auction in 2020.²

We are grateful to Dott.ssa Francesca Baldassari for endorsing the attribution to Lorenzo Lippi on the basis of digital images.

¹ For a survey of the significance of Lindsay's collections see N. Barker, H. Brigstocke and T. Clifford, 'A Poet in Paradise': Lord Lindsay and Christian Art, A. Weston-Lewis (ed.), exh. cat., Edinburgh 2000.

² Anonymous sale, Wannenes Art Auctions, Genoa, 24 September 2020, lot 953.