Apollonio di Giovanni

Eugène Piot, Paris;
His deceased sale, Paris, Hotel Drouot, May 21-24, 1890, lot 554;
Emile Gavet;
His sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, June 9, 1897, lot 731;
With Julius Böhler, Munich, by 1915;
William Gwinn Mather, thence by decent.

P. Schubring, Cassoni, Truhen und Truhenbilder der italienischen Frührenaissance, Leipzig 1915, pp. 249-250, cat. no. 126, reproduced, table XXIV;
E. Callmann, Apollonio di Giovanni, 1974, p. 86 (under rejected works).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The original panel has been shaved and subsequently the entire panel has been applied to small blocks of wood which are nicely stabilizing the paint layer. This panel is more or less flat. Through the dark hill in the center there is a slightly concave crack and some associated restoration. There appears to be an addition of approximately three quarters of an inch running along the top of the panel, another along the bottom and another thin strip of addition on the right edge. The paint layer seems to be clean and has been fairly recently attended to. Throughout the picture there are a few spots of retouching here and there yet they are not focused in any particular way and despite the expected and visible deterioration here and there of some of the paint layer, it is surprising to see the gilding is such good condition, particularly in some of the horses on the left side. The restoration is good and while the retouching could be more focused, in general the condition is perfectly healthy.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This painting once formed the front panel of a cassone or marriage chest, a form of luxurious furniture popular in Northern Italy, particularly in Tuscany, from the 14th to the 16th Century.  Cassoni were usually commissioned in pairs in honor of a wedding, and while they were originally used for more practical purposes, presumably such as the storage of linens and other items included in the bride's dowry, by the early 15th Century they had become elite items, meant to convey the intermarrying families' wealth and social status.  By the middle decades of the 15th Century, biblical scenes or episodes from classical history were often depicted, sometimes of extremely rarefied subject matter (as is, indeed, the case of the present example), thus presumably allowing the patron to display his own scholarly sophistication. 

Although they were sometimes painted by artists who had more standard practices, cassoni were usually painted by specialists who produced them and other related types of paintings, such as spalliere and deschi da parto.  In fact, the painter of the present panel, Apollonio di Giovanni was perhaps the most prolific, well-documented and fashionable artist with such a practice working in Florence in the mid-fifteenth century.  He was active in Florence, from the late 1430's until the mid 1460's, and much of that time appears to have been in partnership with a certain Marco del Buono, whose artistic participation in the studio (if any) remains unclear. ¹.  Apollonio's work had been isolated under a number of different working names; after the discovery in 1902 of his bottega's book of commissions, however, it was possible to identify a number of cassoni securely as the work of Apollonio.²    

Based on the account book, it is clear that Apollonio's practice was highly lucrative and busy, and the patrons listed in it came from Florence's most important families: the Medici, Rucellai, Guicciardini, Benci, Ginori and the Strozzi amongst others.   While it is not possible to ascertain who the owner of the present panel was, its mate can be identified.  When the picture was in the Piot collection (see provenance), the painting was paired with a picture representing the Battle of Pharsalus, which included a depiction of the death of Pompey (now in a private collection, Italy).  The subject of the present panel has also remained somewhat obscure.  When the panel was published by Schubring (see literature) it was identified as Constantine before the Walls of Jerusalem.³  This event, in fact, appears to never have occurred, as the city of Jersusalem had remained firmly in the hands of the empire throughout Constantine's reign.  The city represented has no landmarks to suggest that it is, in fact, Jerusalem at all.  The key to the subject would appear to be the figure of the woman in the upper left of the cassone and the banner held by the advancing knight in the middle of the composition.  The black eagle on a gold ground was the insignia of the Holy Roman Emperor, most likely that of Frederick II "Stupor Mundi" whose involvement in Italian politics was significant.  The figure of the woman standing on the hill appears to be dressed in the habit of a Franciscan nun, and may represent Saint Clare, whose intervention saved the town of Assisi from the siege of the emperor's troops under the leadership of Vitale d'Aversa. However, the particulars of the story do not correspond exactly.  Whatever the exact subject, the present cassone's reappearance has allowed its stylistic reappraisal and thus becomes an important addition to Apollonio's known oeuvre.

We are grateful to Everett Fahy for confirming this work to be by Apollonio di Giovanni, on the basis of photographs.


1  See E. Callmann, Apollonio di Giovanni, Oxford 1974, pp.5-6.
2  This identification, however, occurred only some years later, in 1944.  Wolfgang Stechow was able to identify the coats of arms on the cassone in the collection of the Allen Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio, which belonged to the Ruccelai and the Vettori.  Since only one marriage occurred in the 15^th Century between these two aristocratic families (in 1463 between Caterina Ruccellai and Piero Francesco di Paolo Vettori), Stechow was able to deduce that the cassone listed in Apollonio's order book (which lists the patrons but not the subjects of the paintings on the chests) for these families was that in Oberlin, and thus was able stylistically to unite a number of other cassoni rightfully under Apollonio's name, which had previously been masquerading under various working monikers, such as the "Dido Master", the "Virgil Master" and the "Master of the Jarves Cassoni".  Cf.  Stechow, Wolfgang. "Marco del Buono and Apollonio di Giovanni, Cassone Painters." Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin 1 (1944), pp. 5-21.
3  "Rechts die grosse Stadt Jerusalem....Constantin kämpft unter der Flagge des die Flügel breitenden Adlers.  Links oben di Zelte Constantins; in dem einen schläftt der Köning.  Ihm erscheint in Traum seine Mutter Helena.. [Right, the great city of Jerusalem... Constantine camps under the flag of the spread-winged eagle.  At upper left is the tent of Constantine; in which the king is sleeping.  His mother Helen appears to him in a dream]."