Paolo Uccello

With Malmedy, Cologne, where acquired by Dr. Pickardt;
Dr. Pickardt until September 1967, when sold to the aunt of the previous owner (as by Francesco d'Antonio);
Their anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 11 July 2001, lot 69 where acquired by the present owner.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a thick poplar panel, with two joints and a horizontal upper section at the top of the arch. There were once two or three traditional cross bars behind, long since removed. There is some old worm damage but the panel is still strong, as is the original frame. The gilding is beautifully preserved, and untampered with, both in the frame and in the ground, with some bole naturally visible in places. One long crack runs down the centre from the top through the face of the Madonna and the Child's arm to the lower drapery, which is very old and there is no sign of any recent movement at all in the panel or the paint. There are one or two old accidental damages: an old knock in the lower right blue drapery and a fairly large triangular damage in the central swaddling clothes of the Child, about one inch by two across. However in general there are very few accidents and no structural problems of any sort. There is old patchy wear in various places, especially in the flesh painting where little remains of the upper layers above the terra verde, and the powerful drawing. The yellow lining to the Virgin's robe is largely intact, apart from one lower fold, but it has lost much of its deep red glaze. The fine blue robe itself may have been smalt with a final layer of lapis, now patchily worn and with some residual rough old overpaint blurring particularly the lower right folds and on the knee. The strength of the original nevertheless emerges. 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."

We are grateful to Everett Fahy for endorsing the attribution on inspection of the original, and for pointing out that the drawing of the drapery and the pose of the Madonna and Child are characteristic of Uccello's early flamboyant Gothic phase. Mr Fahy has drawn particular attention to the striking similarity born by the pose and execution to the midwife holding the newborn Mary in Uccello's fresco of The Birth of Mary in the Chapel of the Assunta, Prato cathedral. Further comparison may be made with the lunette of the Madonna and child, formerly in the Casa dei Beccuto and now in the Museo di San Marco, Florence.¹

1. See A. Padoa Rizzo, La Cappella dell'Assunta nel Duomo di Prato, Prato 1997.