The Pseudo-Granacci, possibly identifiable as Poggio Poggini

Bargioni family, Florence;
Prof. Costoli collection, Florence, 1906-21 (according to Reinach, see Literature);
Eugène Richtenberger, Paris, by 1903;
His deceased sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot (Féral), April 19-20, 1921, lot 53 (as Granacci);
Mori collection, Paris, 1922 (according to Von Holst, see Literature);
Private collection, Florence (according to Fiocco, see Literature);
Godfrey Locker-Lampson collection, London, by 1937 or later;
With Paul Drey, New York;
From whom purchased in 1945 by "The Friends of Art" for the Art Institute of Zanesville, now the Zanesville Art Center, Ohio (no. A 189);
By whom sold ("Property from the collection of the Zanesville Art Center"), January 26, 2006, lot 28.

Baltimore (Maryland), The Baltimore Museum of Art, Bacchiacca and His Friends, January 10 - February 19, 1961, no. 19 (as Granacci);
Columbus (Ohio), The Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, The Renaissance Image of Man and World, October 27 - November 27, 1961, no. 8 (as Francesco Granacci and Domenico Ghirlandaio).

B. Berenson, The Drawings of the Florentine Painters, New York 1903, vol. I, p. 122, vol. II, under nos. 909, 1002, and 1006 (as Granacci);
S. Reinach, Tableaux inédits ou peu connus tirés de collections françaises, Paris 1906, p. 40, reproduced plate XXXII (as Granacci);
B. Berenson, The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance, New York 1909, p. 146 (as Francesco Granacci);
A. Venturi, Storia dell'arte Italiana, vol. IX, part I, Milan 1925, p. 489 (as Granacci);
G. Fiocco, "La data di nascita di Francesco Granacci e un' ipotesi michelangiolesca," in Rivista d'arte, 2nd series, vol. II, 1930, pp. 207-8, reproduced fig. 2 (as Granacci);
R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, vol.  XIII, The Hague 1931, p. 205, reproduced p. 210, fig. 140 (as Mainardi);
R. Langton Douglas, A Few Italian Pictures Collected by Godfrey Locker-Lampson, London n.d. (1937 or later), cat. no. IX (as Granacci);
B. Berenson, The Drawings of the Florentine Painters, Chicago 1938, vol. I, p. 144, footnote 1, vol. II, under nos. 909, 939, 1002, and 1006(as earliest work by Granacci known to the author);
B. Berenson, I disegni dei pittori fiorentini, Milan 1961, vol. I, p. 211, vol. II, under nos. 909, 939, 1002, and 1006 (as Granacci);
G. Rosenthal, "Bacchiacca: Mannerist with Perfect Manners", in Art News, vol. LIX, January 1961, reproduced p. 43, fig. 5 (as Granacci);
Bacchiacca and His Friends, exhibition catalogue, Baltimore (Maryland), The Baltimore Museum of Art, January 10 - February 19, 1961, pp. 42-3, cat. no. 19 (as Granacci);
The Renaissance Image of Man and World, exhibition catalogue, Columbus (Ohio), The Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, October 27 - November 27, 1961, cat. no. 8, reproduced (as Francesco Granacci and Domenico Ghirlandaio);
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School, London 1963, vol. I, p. 221, reproduced vol. II, plate 1025 (as "between Piero di Cosimo, Raffaellino del Garbo, and early Granacci; same hand as Baltimore 506");
F. Zeri and B. Fredericksen, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge 1972, p. 221(as Florence, 15th century);
C. von Holst, Francesco Granacci, Munich 1974, p. 208, cat. no. 217, reproduced p. 229, fig. 137 (as School of Domenico Ghirlandaio);.
F. Zeri, Italian Paintings in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore 1976, vol. I, p. 179 (as Florentine and disagrees with Berenson's 1963 attribution to the artist who painted Walters 37.506).

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. This painting is in very healthy condition. The panel appears to be made of three sections of wood joined vertically, one join to the right of the Madonna and the other through the head of Joseph. These joins do not appear to have ever broken and no restoration seems to have been applied to these areas. There are two horizontal battens on the reverse, and the paint layer is very stable, although noticeably cracked in the sky but not lifting. The picture is quite dirty and will clean quite well, if desired. No retouches are clearly visible under the ultraviolet light, but there seem to be some retouches in Joseph's orange cloak. The light cracking to the varnish in the roof of the manger in the upper center are not paint losses. The procession of the three kings in the far left is in beautiful state. The picture is in beautiful condition, with the potential to clean well to reveal a much cooler and more varied palette.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This tondo, which was formerly in the collection of Eugène Richtenberger (erroneously named by Bernard Berenson as Émile Richtenberger) in Paris, was long considered to be an early work by Francesco Granacci. Berenson tentatively connected it to various studies of drapery and figures in the Uffizi, and although he originally believed the tondo to be the earliest known work by Granacci he had revised this opinion by the time he wrote his Italian Pictures of the Renaissance in 1963 (see Literature). The attribution to Granacci was endorsed by other scholars - Venturi, Fiocco and Langton Douglas amongst them - but Van Marle had proposed an alternative attribution to Sebastiano Mainardi. In more recent times the paintings has been identified as being by a Florentine master working in the following of Domenico Ghirlandaio and he is considered to be the same master as the one who painted The Triumph of Chastity in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.¹ The artist, formerly referred to as the "Master of the Spiridon Story of Joseph" -- a pseudonym given him by Federico Zeri² after the panel depicting scenes from the life of Saint Joseph formerly in the Spiridon collection in Paris - has since become known as "The Pseudo-Granacci." The name was first coined by Carlo Volpe in 1972 and Zeri & Fredericksen (see Literature) and, subsequently, Everett Fahy³ grouped other works under the same hand: these include a tondo in The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina (Kress inv. 298); another in the Uffizi, Florence (inv. 342); and a tondo in the Muzeum Narodowe, Cracow (inv. 1376).

Fahy has since suggested that the Master may be identifiable as Poggio Poggini, who was recorded as a garzone in Domenico Ghirlandaio's bottega in Pisa in 1493 and with Granacci in 1495.⁴

 

1. Unpublished list compiled by Everett Fahy in 1984.
2.  See Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Florentine School, New York 1971, p. 182.
3.  Unpublished list compiled by Everett Fahy in 1984.
4.  See Il Giardino di San Marco,  exhibition catalogue, Casa Buonarotti, Florence, Milan 1992, pp.  51-52.