Master of Sant'Ivo

Osvald Sirén (1879-1966), Stockholm;
Acquired by the late husband of the present owner.

O. Sirén, 'Italian Pictures in Sweden' in The Burlington Magazine, August 1904, pp 439-440 (as Sienese School, circa 1400, possibly Andrea Vanni?);
M. Boskovits, Pittura fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento, 1370-1400, Florence 1975, p. 379 (as the Master of Sant'Ivo);
A. Tambini, Pittura dall'alto medioevo al tardogotico nel territorio di Faenza e Forli', Faenza 1982, p. 118;
M. Lucco in I. Consigli (ed.), Opere d'arte da una collezione privata, Parma 1993, pp. 30-32, reproduced in colour (as the Master of Sant'Ivo).

According to Boskovits (see Literature), who coined the artist's name after the rarely depicted saint in the panel in Palazzo di Parte Guelfa in Florence, it is likely that this master trained with Agnolo Gaddi. Federico Zeri was the first to identify the hand and assign a corpus of works to him.¹ Other works by him include a Madonna and Child in the Christ Church Picture Gallery in Oxford, and a similar work in the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge (Mass.).

At the beginnning of the twentieth century the painting formed part of the collection of Osvald Sirén, one of the pioneers of modern art history.


1. See J. Byam Shaw, Paintings by Old Masters at Christ Church Oxford, London 1967, p. 38.