Attributed to Master of San Torpè

R. van Marle, Gemme d'Arte Antica Italiana, Milan 1938, cat. III (as by Barna da Siena).

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 panel has been recently restored and should be hung as is. The reverse of the panel is un-reinforced. The surface is flat and the paint layer is stable. The frame has been repaired and re-gilded. But the gold to the piece itself looks period or at least has been very nicely repaired. Under ultraviolet light it is very hard to detect actual restorations but to the naked eye conveniently there are restorations applied in the Italian manor, which allows for easy detection when viewed closely. Therefore, in the center of the chest of the Madonna there is a loss approximately half an inch square which is visible and which has been retouched; along the bottom edge and in the lower right and left corners there are restorations; in the center of the left side, in the red wings and in the center of the right side in the orange robe there are also retouches. In the applied panel overhead the condition is similarly good with a few spots of retouch but again the condition seems to be very good and well restored.

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One of the most important artists active  in Pisa in the opening decades of the trecento, the Master of San Torpè has been a somewhat enigmatic and confused figure since he was first identified as a distinct artistic personality.  Evelyn Sandberg-Vavalà christened the master after a Madonna and Child in the church of San Torpè, Pisa, and attributed to him a small number of works, including another Madonna and Child in the church of San Francesco, Pisa, along with a panel she believed to be from the same polyptych depicting Saint John the Evangelist (Lindenau-Museum, Altenberg).¹  Other scholars began to add to this nucleus, and a profile for the master began to form: as an artist clearly reacting to Duccio's innovations, and active from as early as the beginning of the century.²

However, more recent thought has reconsidered some of these earlier attributions, and a clearer, more uniform and certainly more robust image of the artist has emerged.  A number of paintings traditionally ascribed to the artist are now recognized as by a slightly earlier and more prosaic hand.  The works that are now recognized as by the master himself suggest a rather more talented painter, and the influence of the Lorenzetti and also Francesco Traini is perceptible in his style, thus suggesting that he was active in the 1320's and 30's.   

This beautiful Madonna displays many of the stylistic elements typical of the Torpè Master's work.  Echoes of Duccio which are visible in some paintings are here somewhat more muted, but a naturalism and psychological insight in many of the artist's Madonnas is still very much present.   The strongly drawn figure of the Infant Christ finds parallels in other panels, such as the bambino in the Madonna and Child in the Seattle Art Museum (inv. 61.152 ), as well as in the Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saint Bartholomew, the Baptist and Angels in the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh (inv. GL.60.17.3).  The Master's love of pattern, both in the elaborately woven scarlet cloth of honor, as well as in the haloes decorated with foliate designs a mano libera also appear in other examples, including the Raleigh panel.  The expectant angels, theirs hands crossed in adoration appear in other works, including in a Madonna and Child with Angels in the Badia di Morrona, Terricciola (PI) as well as in a Madonna and Child with Angels, and Saints Steven, John the Baptist and Lawrence, formerly with Moretti, Florence, 1999.³

1.  See E. Sandberg-Vavalà, "Some Partial Reconstructions-II", Burlington Magazine, LXXXI, 1938, p. 234.  The panel in San Francesco and the Lindenau St. John are now considered to be by Memmo di Filippuccio (see A.  Caleca in La Pittura in Italia: il Duecento e il Trecento, 1986, vol. II,  pp. 630-1).
2.  A number of art historians attributed works to the master, and discussed his origins and significance to Pisan art of the early 14th Century.  Amongst many others, E Carli, after having first dismissed him, backtracked and attributed a newly discovered monumental fresco in the Pisa Duomo to the master, noting his importance (see Pittura Pisana del Trecento, Milan 1958, pp. 16-17).   M. Bucci and R. Longhi both praised the artist as well, with Longhi considering him to have had a Sienese training (their articles appear together sequentially in Paragone, 153, 1962, pp 3-9;10-15).
3.  For the latter see Da Bernardo Daddi a Giorgio Vasari, Florence 1999, pp. 8-22, reproduced.