Bernardo Daddi

Biondi Collection, Florence;
Henri Chalandon, La Grange Blanche, Parcieux, France;
Chalandon family, from whom acquired directly by the present owners probably in the mid 1950s. 

R. Offner, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting, The Fourteenth Century. Workshop of Bernardo Daddi, Section III, Volume VIII, New York 1958, p. 86 (as following of Daddi), reproduced plate XIXa,b;
R. Offner, ed. M. Boskovits and E. Nerli Lausanna,  A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. The Fourteenth Century. The Works of Bernardo Daddi, Section III, Vol. III, Florence, 1989, p. 85.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. These two thick poplar panels have been cradled perhaps in the middle of the last century and could have been slightly thinned, with any worm damage filled. However there is no sign of cracks or serious movement in the wood, past or present, which might precipitate cradling and so it was presumably for extra security, and it has not had any side effects. There is a lovely even craquelure, and remarkably little past flaking. The frames are later but even the fine tooling at the edges is largely finely intact, as are the beautifully preserved halos and the gold ground generally. St John the Evangelist. The silhouette of the figure has a little strengthening line of retouching, with rather more in the hair, where there is also retouching in the curl by the temple. There is a larger retouching in the hand, a few little retouchings in the lining of the robe, a tiny retouching in the neck and some rather knocked places in the two base corners. This is a quite remarkably intact panel, having scarcely any damage at all and a beautifully mature unworn surface, which is most rare. St. Francis. This panel is also largely in exceedingly fine condition, especially in the gold and in the drapery. There is some rubbing in the base corners, and one or two tiny repairs in the gold at top left, while the flowered tooling of the halo is beautifully complete. Although the drapery is perfectly intact the browns of the flesh painting have been more vulnerable, and have a certain amount of little retouchings: mainly in the far side of the head, in the lower cheek and far side of the mouth and in the hair, with a patch on the top of the tonsure and on the forehead. The hand also has little touches as does the stigmata in the chest. Overall the two panels are unusually fine and intact, having never been subjected to intrusive treatment and apparently having led a peaceful life for centuries. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"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."

Bernardo Daddi was one of the most important Florentine artists of the first half of the fourteenth century. He probably matriculated in the Florentine Painters Guild, the Arte dei Medici e Speziali around 1320. He is generally thought to have been been a pupil or associate of Giotto, to whose sculptural and monumental style he added his own sweet and more expressive line and greater refinement of colour. His own workshop emerged in its own right in the 1330s in response to the growing demand for panel paintings on both a monumental and private devotional scale, and in this latter category he played an important role in the pioneering of portable miniature tabernacles.

These two panels would originally have formed two leaves of a polyptych. No other panels have yet been identified as having come from the same complex, but it is probable that the central panel would have featured the Madonna and Child, and that St. Francis would have been placed on her right side and Saint John to her left. In their simple unadorned style and their concise rendering of volumes, they are most probably mature works from the mid to late 1330s, and may reflect the influence of Maso di Banco, who is thought to have trained in Daddi's workshop. The pattern decorating the hem of Saint John's red tunic had by this date become a distinctive feature of Daddi's paintings. A very similar pattern can be found, for example, on Daddi's  Madonna and Child with a finch which is part of the Berenson Collection at the Villa I Tatti in Florence, which probably also dates to the 1330s.¹  The Saint Francis may have evolved from the very similar design for a panel in an earlier polyptych of The Madonna and Child with Saint Francis, Bartholomew, Barnabas and Catherine, that is now in the Galleria Communale, Prato, probably from around 1328-30. Here the saint is similarly depicted with his hands crossed at his breast and occupying a position in the altarpiece similar to that which the present panel perhaps might originally have had.

We are grateful to Everett Fahy who, based on first hand inspection, believes these panels to be early works by Bernardo Daddi dating to the 1320s. He notes that the halo of the Saint Francis has been decorated with a free hand foliate design, rather than with punch marks as on the panel of Saint John.

1. B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School, London 1963, vol. !, p. 54, reproduced plate 182.