Giovanni del Biondo and Workshop

Dr Röhrer, Ammersee;
Otto Henkel, Wiesbaden;
Private collection, Germany (all of the above according to Offner, under Literature, 1969).

By 1969 and until recently on long-term storage in the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt (according to Offner, under Literature,1969).

R. Offner, "A Ray of Light on Giovanni del Biondo and Niccolò di Tommaso", in Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, VII, July 1956, p. 189 (as workshop of Giovanni del Biondo);
R. Offner and K. Steinweg, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting, New York 1969, Section IV, vol. V, part 2, pp. 59-60, reproduced plates XXVI-XXVI³ (as workshop of Giovanni del Biondo);
E. Skaug, "Punch marks - what are they worth? Problems of Tuscan workshop interrelationships in the mid-fourteenth century: the Ovile Master and Giovanni da Milano", in H.W. van Os and J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer eds., La pittura del XIV e XV secolo, il contributo dell'analisi tecnica alla storia dell'arte, Bologna 1983, p. 282, detail reproduced fig. 24 (as by Giovanni del Biondo);
E. Skaug, Punch Marks From Giotto to Fra Angelico, Oslo 1994, vol. I, p. 201 (as Giovanni del Biondo and datable to 1371).

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. UNCONDITIONAL AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE Structural Condition The five panels appear to be in good and sound structural condition. All five panels have one horizontal metal bracket on the reverse and one panel has a vertical line of seven small rectangular wooden inserts on the reverse. There is evidence of old woodworm which appears inactive and the apexes of the panels appear to have been reconstructed. There are almost inevitably some old splits and hairline fractures and minor structural losses but these are all minimal. Paint Surface There is an overall pattern of drying craquelure and all five panels have uneven and discoloured varnish layers and should benefit from cleaning. The varnish layers are particularly uneven over old retouchings. The panel of the Virgin has a very deteriorated varnish layer, particularly on the Virgin's blue draperies which appear to have had some surface mould in the past. There are also some matt and discoloured retouchings on the figure of Christ above the figure of the Virgin. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows different stages of scattered retouching many of which have discoloured and are visible in strong natural light. The most significant retouchings are those covering old splits or repairs to the panels and many of the retouchings may well be found to be larger than is really necessary should they be removed during the cleaning process and could therefore be reduced with more careful retouching. Summary The five panels would therefore appear to be in good condition, particularly for paintings of this period, and should respond very well to cleaning, restoration and revarnishing.
"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 dismembered polyptych was painted in Florence circa 1370 by the prolific Giovanni del Biondo with the help of assistants. As the artist's long career spanned almost exactly half of the Trecento, his work provides a neat bridge from the first generations of artists to react to Giotto's innovations of the early 1300s to the development of the International Gothic style at the turn of the fifteenth century. The progression in Giovanni's style can be followed quite closely since, unusually for the period, several of his extant works are dated; the earliest being the High Altar in Santa Croce in Florence (1363), and the last a Madonna at Figline in the Val d'Arno Superiore (1392).

Giovanni's early work from the early 1360s was still very close to Nardo Cione, whom he had assisted in the decoration of the Strozzi chapel in Santa Maria Novella in circa 1357. As relatively early works it is not surprising to find  the artist still relying on a fairly rigid formula in the portrayal of the present saints with a linearity of form and frontal pose still steeped in the Orcagnesque idiom: all four are firm in their stance, with similar facial structures, and sharp glances emanating from their uniformly-shaped eyes. However, in the ornamentation we find an artist more advanced in his vision: the saints' clothing is rich in decoration, particularly in the brocaded gowns of Peter and Gregory and the carefully adorned cloth around Bartholomew, while even the simple clothes of Saint John hint at Giovanni's later interest in colour.

Though the panels are no longer secured by a unifying frame, there is no reason to suggest that the polyptych was composed of any more than the extant five sections and in its original framed state the polyptych would have looked similar to the Tosinghi altarpiece in Santa Croce in Florence from 1372.¹ In the central panels of both works the focus is on the tender interplay between the Madonna and the Christ Child who plays with a bird, while the figures of Bartholomew are clearly related.

The punchmarks provide a useful key for the dating of the panels. Skaug (see Literature, 1983) has shown that the tools used for the decoration of the haloes in the present works originate in Siena and in the 1350s had belonged to Bartolommeo Bulgarini (formerly known as the Master of Ovile) as well as to Naddo Ceccarelli, and can be seen in such works as the latter's Madonna and Child formerly with the Giovanni Sarti Gallery in 1998 and the Polyptych from 1347 in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena, inv. no. 115.² The tools were subsequently introduced to Florence by Giovanni da Milano in 1363 after his return from Siena.³ The wide range of Florentine artists in whose works various tools were shared, including Cenni di Francesco, the Orcagna brothers and Andrea Bonaiuti, has led Skaug to term the joint enterprise of these artists as the "Post-1363 Collaboration". The collaboration seems to have ended around 1375, after which Giovanni del Biondo is known to have returned to his old punch tools, providing a terminus ante quem for the execution of these panels.

We are extremely grateful to Dr. Gaudenz Freuler for proposing the attribution and for his invaluable assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.


1. See R. Offner and K. Steinweg, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting, New York 1967, Section IV, vol. IV, part 1, pp. 115-18, plates XXVI-XXVI³.
2. See P. Torriti, La Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena, dipinti dal XII al XV secolo, Genoa 1980, p. 141, cat. no. 115, reproduced in colour fig. 146.
3.  See, for example, his punchwork in the Magdalen's halo in the Pietà from 1365 in the Accademia, Florence, in D. Parenti ed., Giovanni da Milano, Capolavori del Gotico fra Lombardia e Toscana, exhibition catalogue, Florence, Galleria dell'Accademia, 10 June - 2 November 2008, pp. 232-35, cat. no. 24, reproduced in colour.